Knoxville News Sentinel

The Knoxville News-Sentinel is a daily newspaper that provides news and information to residents of Knoxville, Tenn., and surrounding area. It has a circulation of more than 122,000 for its daily morning edition and 157,000 for its Sunday newspaper. The Sentinel was first published in 1886 above a liquor store in the midst of a raging snowstorm. Newspaper publisher John Trevis Hearn began the paper after noticing that Knoxville had no evening newspaper. The Sentinel filled that niche until 1986, when The News Sentinel switched to a morning publication. The Sentinel was absorbed by The News, another local paper, in 1926. In the years following, The News Sentinel took a leading role in promoting state legislation and reform. The newspaper was instrumental in modernizing the state constitution, abolishing the justice of the peace system, obtaining statewide compulsory voting registration and eliminating the color bar in schools, recreation and public accommodations. The Knoxville News-Sentinel is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company.