GRowTH and DevelopMeNT THE GREENEVILLE SUN

The Greeneville Sun is Greeneville and Greene County’s daily newspaper. It is a combination of what had originally been three weekly newspapers: The Democrat, The Searchlight, and The Greeneville Sun. The earliest of the three was The Democrat, which dates to 1879.

On September 1, 2016, when the Sun, its sister newspapers, and the other components of parent company Jones Media, Inc., were sold to another family-owned newspaper company, Adams Publishing Group, the Sun itself was in its fourth generation and one-hundredth year of ownership and management by the Susong-O’Keefe-Jones family.

Mrs. Edith O’Keefe Susong acquired The Democrat in 1916. By 1921 she was able to buy The Searchlight and The Greeneville Sun, consolidate them, and move to daily publication as The Greeneville Democrat-Sun.

The name of the paper evolved slightly over the next decade. Thus, Mrs. Susong served as publisher of The Greeneville Democrat from 1916 to 1920, as publisher of The Greeneville Democrat-Sun from 1920 to 1930, and as publisher of The Greeneville Sun from 1930 until her death in 1974, at age 84. She was always a very active force in the community.

Her mother, Quincy Marshall O’Keefe, became the editor (in effect, the editorial page editor) of The Greeneville Democrat-Sun/The Greeneville Sun in 1920, and continued in that role until the mid-1950s. Mrs. O’Keefe was widely admired for her editorials and personal columns.

In 1940, Mrs. Susong’s daughter, Arne Jones, married John M. Jones, III, of Sweetwater, Tenn. After serving in World War II, Mr. Jones returned to Tennessee in late 1945 and agreed to help his mother-in-law with the Sun on a trial basis, although he had no previous newspaper background. He discovered that he loved newspapering, and he and his wife soon became substantially equal partners with Mrs. Susong in the business.

Following Edith Susong’s death in 1974, Jones became publisher of The Greeneville Sun, and remained so until his death at age 101 in July 2016. It had been only a few months less than 71 years since he entered the newspaper business.

Jones led The Greeneville Sun and its sister mediarelated companies through significant growth for several decades, ultimately becoming Jones Media, Inc. (JMI). He served as JMI’s president until 2001, when he was succeeded in that position by one of his three sons, thenSun Co-Publisher Gregg K. Jones.

What used to be Jones Media, Inc. is now part of Adams Publishing Group-Tennessee/North Carolina/Virginia, and is a broadly-integrated media company. Gregg Jones, who succeeded his father as Sun publisher after John M. Jones’ death, also served as Executive Vice President of Adams Publishing Group’s other operations and its more than 2,500 Associates throughout the United States until December 31, 2020.

Paul W. Mauney became regional president for Adams Publishing Group’s Tennessee/North Carolina/Virginia region in November 2019. With currently more than 250 associates, APG TN/NC/VA publishes 7 daily newspapers, 19 non-daily newspapers, and over 25 magazines. It also owns and operates a large tourism-oriented publications company that serves the Southeastern United States, along with several significant commercial web-printing facilities.

APG TN/NC/VA also operates hundreds of websites, and has a full-service marketing solutions firm — The High Road Agency — dedicated to targeting effectively its domestic and international clients’/partners’ messages using any medium, including digital, anywhere in the United States.