Bishop to purchase Messenger

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Veteran journalist Austin Bishop will purchase and take over operations of the Kemper County Messenger effective Oct. 1, it was announced.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to work toward providing the people of Kemper County with the type of newspaper they desire and deserve,” Bishop said.

“Every community needs a newspaper to tell its stories. This is a unique opportunity to do this in a place I love.”

“Mr Prince has given me an incredible opportunity to be a part of a special community. This is both an honor and an opportunity, one I take seriously.”

The Messenger absorbed The Kemper Herald (1875), The Southern Star (1897), The Kemper Herald-Star (1908) and The DeKalb Sentinel (1926) to become The Kemper County Messenger in 1934.

Prince Media Group (formerly Prince Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) began managing the Messenger in February 2002 and purchased the newspaper from James L. Sledge and Betty B. Sledge the following year. The Messenger had been in the Sledge family since 1942.

The Prince family has Kemper County ties going back to around 1855 when they settled around Kellis Store and Preston.

“Austin Bishop is uniquely qualified to shepherd the Messenger and really provide the newspaper Kemper countians deserve,” said James E. Prince III, the publisher. “The industry changed the last decade and an individual is better suited to make the Messenger what it should be.”

Bishop has been covering sports and news in Kemper County off and on since 1979. He has been married to his wife Barbara for 34 years and they live near Daleville.

Bishop has been in the journalism business for 45 years, landing his first journalism job as a senior in high school.

“We will be leaving the Messenger in better hands,” Prince said. “My family roots go back to just after the founding of Kemper County in 1833 and I have always felt a connection and appreciate how kind the people have been.”

“Joshua Samuel and Louisa Alice Williamson Creekmore and James Enos and Annie Louise Creekmore Prince where my great-grandparents and grandparents respectively.”

“Among our earliest Kemper County connections were James Enos (1842-1910) and Mary Jane VanDevender Prince (1844-unknown). They had a son, William Richard, who married Clara Lorene “Doll” Luke all of Kemper County. The VanDevender line traces back to Holland and the1600s or possibly Alsace-Lorraine, France. We don’t know for sure.”

“But Christopher VanDevender is buried in the Old Salem Cemetery and indications are the family was on the continent well before the Revolutionary War and came to Kemper County from up East as part of the westward migration to open land.”

The Prince group publishes The Neshoba Democrat, the Madison County Journal, Madison Magazine, Neshoba Magazine and has a full-service digital marketing firm with clients from Northern Virginia to California.






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