Journal Broadcast Group history

Under Nieman’s direction, the publication grew steadily, and in 1885 the name was changed to the Milwaukee Journal. It will be the people’s paper.” The newspaper was incorporated in January 1883 as The Journal Company, its $15,000 in capital stock owned mostly by Nieman and Kraus.

To increase circulation, in 1899 Nieman reduced the price of the Journal to one cent per copy.

In 1907, after 25 years in operation, the Journal finally moved into its first building.

In 1912 Nieman began using airplanes to deliver newspapers.

The man who would step into the breach was Harry Johnston Grant, who Nieman brought in as advertising manager in 1916 to rebuild the paper’s circulation and relationship with advertisers.

In July 1927 the station, rechristened WTMJ, broadcast for the first time, becoming the city’s first fully equipped station.

In February 1940 the company launched the first FM station west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Over the next decade the plan evolved and more stock became available to the employees, and in 1947 the employees gained majority control, owning a 55 percent interest.

In December 1953 WTMJ-TV broadcast the NBC network’s first color program, and seven months later the station produced Wisconsin’s first live color television program.

As a thriving media company it caught the attention of Affiliated Publications, the owners of the Boston Globe, which bid $600 million for it in 1986.

In 1991 Midwestern Relay acquired Minneapolis-based Norlight, a fiber-optic private carrier.

The Journal Broadcast Group acquired ten radio stations in 1998, in such cities as Omaha; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Boise, Idaho.

Most of its acquisitions had been paid for in cash, but in 2002 the company began exploring the possibility of using outside funding to fuel growth.

In 2004 a Green Bay television station was bought.