Southeastern Newspapers Co LLC history

Naegele had been founded in 1934 by Robert O. Naegele, Sr., in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 1945, Bill Morris, his wife, Florence, and a friend purchased controlling interest in The Chronicle.

Billy Morris, who had delivered the hometown newspapers from horseback as a boy, joined the company in 1956 as assistant to the president, a few days before his 22nd birthday.

In 1960 it acquired two daily newspapers in Savannah, Georgia.

The company's first Alaskan newspaper was acquired in 1969 in Juneau.

Morris Communications Corporation was established in 1970, with Southeastern Newspapers Corp. as a subsidiary, and descended from a corporate structure dating to the 19th century.

Four Texas dailies were acquired in 1972.

In 1981 MCC acquired Quarter Horse News.

In 1985 Morris Communications moved into outdoor advertising with the purchase of Naegele Outdoor Advertising, Inc., later renamed Fairway Outdoor Advertising.

In 1987 MCC established Morris News Service, which became a leading supplier of regional and national news.

In 1989 the company launched Athens Magazine and purchased Gray's Sporting Journal.

In 1991, Morris Publishing Group was formed to assume the operations of the newspaper business segment of its parent, Morris Communications Co.

In August 1992 the National Barrel Horse Association was formed at a meeting at MCC's corporate offices in Augusta.

The afternoon newspaper Augusta (Ga.) Herald ceased publication in 1993.

1994: MCC acquires Stauffer Communications Inc. for $275 million.

The single largest expansion in numbers of properties occurred in 1995 with the purchase of all outstanding stock of Stauffer Communications, Inc., of Topeka, Kan.

For 1996 MCC's revenues were reported at $360 million.

The company expanded overseas in 1998 with the acquisition of Cadogan Guides in London, England, and created the subsidiary company Morris Publications Ltd.

Others were purchased in 1999, and three related Nebraska publications were started in December 1999, giving MCC more than 20 free community papers in all.

By 2000 MCC's online division also operated a web hosting business in Augusta, hosting most of MCC's newspapers' web sites as well as hundreds of those newspapers' customers' own web sites.

In 2011 Morris Communications entered into a strategic partnership with NIIT Technologies, a leading information technologies solutions organization based in New Delhi, India and serving clients in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.