The history of the News Publishing Co. dates back to Nov. 1, 1928. That's when the late Burgett H. Mooney Sr., the late T.B. Goodwin, both of Gadsden and the late William S. Mudd of Birmingham formed the company and purchased the Rome News-Tribune.
Today, all of the NPCo stock is held by the Mooney family. Burgett H. Mooney III, became general manager of the Rome News-Tribune and president of the Rome News-Tribune in 1986, when after 40 years with the paper Burgett H. Mooney, Jr. retired.
The daily Rome News-Tribune is now one of nine newspapers owned by NPCo. The company has almost 200 employees, not counting the carriers, who are independent contractors.
The Rome News-Tribune traces its roots back to 1843. Its ancestor publications included The Tribune-Herald and The Rome News. Those newspapers consolidated in 1923 to form the Rome News-Tribune.
Acquisitions began with The Rockmart Journal, a weekly, in 1980. The company's next acquisition was the twice-weekly Calhoun Times in 1986. In May 1988, News Publishing Company bought the weekly Cherokee County (Alabama) Herald and the Cedartown Standard, which is published twice-weekly.
In September 1988, the company added the twice-weekly Walker County Messenger. In 1989, News Publishing Co. also acquired the Cherokee County (Alabama) Sun, which it merged with the Cherokee County Herald. In November 1990, News Publishing Co. purchased the Catoosa County News. The company also has two weekly free-distribution papers.
Now, in addition to its newspapers, NPCo now publishes almost 30 publications.
Those include chamber magazines and coupon books in Floyd, Polk, Gordon, Walker and Catoosa counties; seven free total-market-coverage publications in northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama; the annual Past Times historical magazine and Prime Time for seniors.
The company is launching a new women's magazine -- Magnolia -- in June.
In addition to its publications, NPCo has seven Web sites for its newspaper and corporation. It also has a direct-mail program in Whitfield County and delivers political mailings for candidates in all of its markets.
