News-Press & Gazette Company

The News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) is a media company based in St. Joseph, Missouri, wholly owned and operated by the Bradley family. It is presided by Brian Bradley and David R. Bradley, with Hank Bradley (retired), Eric Bradley, and Kit Bradley serving on its board of directors. All are descendants of family patriarch Henry D. Bradley and his son, David Bradley Sr.

News-Press & Gazette's properties include daily and weekly newspapers in Missouri and Kansas, radio and television stations in California, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri and Texas. The NPG group generally concentrates on the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas for their newspapers, and the western United States for their broadcasting properties. Many of News-Press & Gazette's television properties are top rated stations in their respective market.

History
The company traces it roots back to the St. Joseph Gazette which began publishing in 1845. The paper chronicled much of travel into the Old West along the Oregon Trail and California Trail. It was the only newspaper that was sent west on the first ride of the Pony Express. The Gazette eventually merged with the News-Press by publisher Charles M. Palmer. When Palmer died in 1949, Henry D. Bradley was co-publisher of both papers starting in 1939 and bought them outright in 1951.

The Gazette ceased publication in 1988 when its sister, the afternoon News-Press, transitioned into a morning newspaper; however, the family kept the "Gazette" and "G" in the company name. The Bradley family expanded the focus by forming local cable television operator St. Joseph Cablevision in 1965. News-Press & Gazette expanded into broadcast television with the 1976 with purchase of WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia. They would later acquire KAAL-TV in Austin, Minnesota in 1980; WJTV in Jackson, Mississippi in 1983; KSFY in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1985 (and selling off KAAL-TV in the same year); WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina; signing on WJTV satellite station WHLT, Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1987; and acquiring KOLD-TV Tucson, Arizona in 1989. In 1993 NPG would sell off their first group of stations to other companies, but would rebuild its TV portfolio starting with KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas. This expansion continued into the 2000s with the launch of a 24-hour cable-only news channel for St. Joseph, News-Press NOW, along with News-Press & Gazette's acquisition of several full-power and low-power television stations; including KESQ-TV Palm Springs, California (and radio stations KESQ (AM) and KUNA-FM); KIFI-TV Idaho Falls, Idaho; KRDO-TV Colorado Springs, Colorado (and radio stations KRDO (AM) and KRDO-FM); KTVZ in Bend, Oregon; KECY-TV in El Centro, California; KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, California; and KION-TV Monterey - Salinas, California.

In 2011, the Bradley family sold the cable division, which by that time expanded its service area to parts of California and Arizona under the name NPG Cable, to Suddenlink Communications. On March 19, 2012, News-Press & Gazette announced it would establish a low-power television station in St. Joseph that would serve as the company's television flagship and the first broadcast station that the company built and signed on; it would be an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company (with subchannel-only affiliations with The CW and Telemundo). The station was created using the K26LV-D station license (which it acquired, along with K16KF-D, from Sunrise, Florida-based DTV America 1, LLC on March 14 of that year); it launched on June 2, 2012, as KNPN-LD. On July 25, 2012, NPG announced an agreement to purchase ABC affiliate KMIZ and Fox affiliate, KQFX-LD from JW Broadcasting. The deal was consummated on November 1.

In October 2020, NPG sold the Daily Star-Journal to Phillips Media Group, owner of the Sedalia Democrat. NPG had owned the paper since 2007 and after the sale its name was changed to the Warrensburg Star-Journal.

In August 2023, NPG sold its commercial printing facility in St. Joseph, Missouri, and all of its newspapers (excluding the St. Joseph News-Press) to CherryRoad Media. The sale included three Kansas papers: the Miami County Republic, the Atchison Globe and the Hiawatha World; and two papers based in Liberty, Missouri: the Courier-Tribune and the Gladstone Dispatch.

St. Joseph, Missouri area

 * St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Missouri; flagship newspaper)
 * Save NOW (St. Joseph, Missouri)

Television
Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license. In all, NPG owns or operates 28 television properties, nearly all in the western United States.
 * (**) – Indicates that it was built and signed on by NPG.

Cable channel

 * News-Press NOW

Print

 * Atchison Daily Globe (Atchison, Kansas)
 * Courier-Tribune (Liberty, Missouri)
 * The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Missouri)
 * Gladstone Dispatch (Gladstone, Missouri)
 * Green Acres (St. Joseph, Missouri)
 * Hiawatha World (Hiawatha, Kansas)
 * Louisburg Herald (Louisburg, Kansas)
 * Johnson County Sun (Overland Park, Kansas)
 * Kansas City Nursing News (Overland Park, Kansas)
 * Kearney Courier (Kearney, Missouri)
 * Miami County Republic (Paola, Kansas)
 * Osawatomie Graphic (Osawatomie, Kansas)
 * Read It Free (Osawatomie, Kansas)
 * Read It Free - Northwest Missouri (St. Joseph, Missouri)
 * Smithville Herald (Smithville, Missouri)

Cable operations
NPG owned cable systems under the name NPG Cable, Inc.. On November 29, 2010, NPG announced that it had agreed to sell all of its cable systems to Suddenlink Communications for $350 million; the acquisition was closed on April 1, 2011. NPG Cable systems operated in the following communities:
 * St. Joseph, Missouri
 * Lake Havasu City, Arizona
 * Parker, Arizona
 * Blythe, California
 * Bullhead City, Arizona
 * Kingman, Arizona
 * Flagstaff, Arizona
 * Payson, Arizona
 * Sedona, Arizona
 * Mammoth Lakes, California
 * June Lake, California
 * Pine, Arizona
 * Strawberry, Arizona