The Joliet News was first published in 1877 and the Joliet Herald was launched in 1904.

Col. Ira C. Copley bought The Herald in 1913 and added the printing equipment and circulation lists of The News to his company in 1915, when he merged the two papers to create the Herald News.

What later became Copley Press sold its Fox Valley Press Inc. division to Hollinger International in 2000, including the Beacon News in Aurora, Courier News in Elgin, the Herald-News in Joliet and the News Sun in Waukegan. Hollinger also bought Fox Valley Press' Sun Publications in Naperville, a group of 13 weekly papers.

The former Hollinger is now Sun-Times Media.