The Advocate-Messenger has been a Danville staple for 76 years, but the history of community journalism in Danville stretches almost 100 years prior.

What started as The Kentucky Tribune in 1843 as a Whig party supporter, became the Danville Democrat in 1893. In 1907 the renamed Danville News, merged with the Democratic Party supporter newspaper, The Kentucky Advocate. Rival newspaper, The Daily Messenger, was created in 1910. The Daily Messenger was published for 30 years before merging with the Kentucky Advocate to form The Advocate-Messenger in 1940.

The Advocate-Messenger was purchased by Bluegrass Newsmedia LLC, a subsidiary of Boone Newspapers in early 2016. The subsidiary also purchased The Winchester Sun, The Jessamine Journal, and The Interior Journal. The four newspapers are headed by publisher Larry Hensley. Hensley leads a seven-member newsroom: an editor, an arts & entertainment editor, an editorial assistant, two news reporters, a sports editor and a sports reporter. The current editor, Ben Kleppinger, started as a reporter at The Advocate-Messenger in 2009 and then held positions at three of the four papers before becoming editor at The Advocate-Messenger in February.

"We're excited about where we're headed next," said Kleppinger. "We have a renewed focus on our print product that's helping us pack every paper with lots of local content."

As 2016 continues, the team at The Advocate-Messenger is excited to debut their newest product, Danville Living magazine. The new magazine will give Danville its own community-focused magazine, with positive stories, tons of high-quality photos and lots of fun and interesting content.

"It'll be the kind of magazine you can sit and relax with on a day off," said Kleppinger.  

The paper has also added a new reporter, Kerry Steinhofer. Steinhofer has already started writing for the paper, but will start full-time in mid-August, right after she returns from shooting video and writing stories at the Rio Olympics for Asbury University, The Jessamine Journal, Kentucky Monthly and LEX18, among other media outlets. She'll be covering Danville and Boyle County government, as well as economic development activity.

The popularity of print products is picking back up as people are suffering from digital fatigue. They are rediscovering the pleasure of newspapers; there are no nasty comments or never-ending pop-up ads.

"Newspapers have weathered many storms that people predicted would end them. But we're still here and we're even doing better now than we have in a long time," stated Kleppinger. 

For more information on The Advocate-Messenger visit their website here.