The Bourbon News Archive

In 1883, Confederate Army veteran and farmer, Bruce Champ, began publishing the Paris Semi-Weekly Bourbon News. The paper had been established in Millersburg in 1881 as the Bourbon News. No issue of the paper's Millersburg incarnation survives. Champ moved the paper's operations to Paris, the Bourbon County seat, resuming publication on March 7, 1882, with an issue enumerated as volume one and number one; editors invariably counted anniversaries from 1881, however. Twelve months after the move to Paris, on August 3, 1883, Champ changed the name of the paper to the Semi-Weekly Bourbon News, which it remained for nearly 12 years.

The Semi-Weekly Bourbon News was an eight-page self-proclaimed country paper. It chose no political affiliation, although by the turn of the century its successor, the Bourbon News, had developed a populist tone. Despite stiff competition in the close Bluegrass area from the Kentuckian-Citizen in particular, the News thrived by offering a mix of international, national, and state news as well as serials and reports on social affairs in Paris and Bourbon County. The paper also closely covered the Kentucky horse industry and the tobacco business that formed the core of Bourbon County’s economic and cultural interests.

Bruce Champ's death in 1892 saw control of the News pass to Walter Champ, his son, and to Bruce Miller, a nephew. Miller would serve a long tenure as editor and, later, owner of the Kentuckian-Citizen. On July 14, 1895, three years after the elder Champ’s death, the title recommenced simply as the Bourbon News. By 1900, the paper was edited and published by Walter and his brother, W. Swift Champ. Walter Champ's death that same year left Swift as sole owner and editor. Save for a brief lease to George D. Mitchell in 1902, Swift Champ remained owner and editor until his death in 1923. After 60 years, the paper ceased publication in 1941.