02/10/2026
Paducah Sun, WPSD-TV entering a rare new chapter together
BY CHRIS EVANS, THE CRITTENDEN PRESS
In a Kentucky media landscape reshaped by consolidation, digital disruption and rapidly changing audience habits, two of the Commonwealth’s most recognized news institutions are entering a rare new chapter together.
Although ownership has always been the same, WPSD-TV and The Paducah Sun have, for the first time, brought their television and newspaper newsrooms under shared editorial leadership, a move that reflects both the pressures and possibilities facing local journalism statewide.
At the center of that shift is Jeff Bidwell (pictured in the WPSD-TV newsroom), a familiar figure to longtime viewers in western Kentucky. A former sports director at WPSD, Bidwell returned to the company just over two months ago in an expanded role as news director for the television station and executive editor of The Sun and Paxton Media’s other western Kentucky weekly newspapers, managing newsrooms across broadcast, print and digital platforms. His appointment effectively merges editorial leadership of the two flagship outlets owned by Paxton Media Group.
The move carries significance beyond Paducah. It illustrates how legacy media organizations are adapting to a reality in which old boundaries between print, broadcast and digital have largely blurred, even dissolved altogether. For decades, federal ownership rules prevented newspapers and television stations from operating in the same market, a barrier WPSD and The Sun were able to cross only because their shared ownership predated those restrictions. That Federal Communications Commission rule was formally lifted in 2021, but the historical separation shaped newsroom cultures for generations.
Now, the consolidation of leadership reflects a belief that survival depends on shared purpose, disciplined management and scale. In today’s media climate, some observers argue that without consolidation afforded by companies like Paxton Media, many smaller newspapers might have disappeared altogether as advertising revenues shifted online and production costs rose. Paxton Media also owns and operates weeklies in Eddyville, Princeton, Cadiz, Benton, Providence and Dawson Springs among other locations across the commonwealth.
Paxton Media Group is a privately held company led by Jamie Paxton, the latest in a multigenerational line of Paxtons to steward what began as a single river-town newspaper. The company owns dozens of newspapers and a radio station in Franklin, Ky., with a combined daily circulation of about 350,000. Kentucky represents one of its strongest footprints, with 21 newspapers statewide, including six daily publications, along with WPSD-TV.
The company’s roots trace back to Paducah in 1896, when investors led by William F. Paxton launched The Evening Sun after purchasing the assets of a failing newspaper. In 1929, his son, Edwin J. Paxton, acquired a rival publication, forming the Sun-Democrat. The name evolved again in 1978 to The Paducah Sun, reflecting a less political moniker for the city’s primary daily newspaper.
Television entered the picture in 1957, when WPSD-TV signed on the air as an NBC affiliate. Its call letters (PSD) stand for Paducah Sun-Democrat. For decades, Paxton Media operated only The Sun and Channel 6 before beginning a steady expansion starting in 1989 that ultimately made it one of the nation’s largest privately held regional media companies.
That growth has proven pivotal for many Kentucky newspapers. As independent weeklies and dailies faced mounting financial pressures, survival increasingly depended on being part of a larger organization with shared infrastructure and institutional expertise. Without that consolidation, the number of locally focused newspapers in the Commonwealth today would almost certainly be far smaller.
Bidwell’s return comes during another period of upheaval for the industry. An Ohio native and graduate of Ohio University, he entered journalism through sports and spent nearly three decades covering athletes in a four-state region. Then, there was a short hiatus as he dabbled in the real estate and retail sector – he and his wife, former WPSD-TV meteorologist Jennifer Rukavina, have a flower shop on Lone Oak Road. So after more than three years away from media, Bidwell admitted that the newsroom itself felt unfamiliar.
“That was the scariest part about starting this job,” Bidwell said, explaining that he didn’t know names of many of the newcomers on the TV side. And, in all honesty, he said the newspaper reporters and television folks had historically never been too friendly before they started sharing the same office last summer when the NewsChannel 6 team moved into The Paducah Sun building on Kentucky Avenue in downtown Paducah. The move was also another form of consolation to streamline operations.
Bidwell’s philosophy centers on the idea that local journalism still matters because it documents community life in ways that endure. He often points to his sports roots, recalling how local highlights became lasting family memories. One of the phrases he likes to use with reporters is “pro active urgency.” That means, “Go find news,” he said, “don’t sit around waiting for news releases to show up in your email.” He wants news gatherers to be making daily beat calls, ferreting out stories important to viewers and readers.
Bidwell describes a television newscast as a balancing act in a geographically diverse market, offering something for everyone while still explaining how decisions made by local governments directly affect daily life.
People need to know what’s happening in their communities, in local government, with taxes and in schools, he said. Gathering, assimilating and delivering the news is something both print journalists and television reporters have been doing for ages. Now, though, the consumers of that news have left traditional platforms. Bidwell says it is imperative to meet them where they are – on smartphones.
“They’re not sitting around the television at night at six o’clock watching the news,” he said. “We are now in a culture when people want everything immediately.”
Bidwell is candid about the challenges facing journalism in 2026. He has said urgency and platform diversity are no longer optional, as audiences no longer wait for scheduled newscasts to learn what is happening.
“If something happens at 9 in the morning, waiting until 6 p.m., is unacceptable,” he said. “We need to get information out now.”
Leigh Landini Wright, an associate professor of journalism at Murray State University and adviser to The Murray State News, welcomes the approach taking shape at far western Kentucky’s largest media outlet, noting that her students are already being trained for precisely this kind of newsroom evolution. Today’s information consumers are no longer waiting until evening to encounter the news; they expect it in real time, across platforms, and on their own schedules.
Wright said graduates of Murray State’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication earn a degree in multimedia journalism, equipping them to work seamlessly across platforms.
“Students learn about video, audio and print, but of course that print is for digital as well,” she said. “They are learning how to write for all platforms and how to produce for all platforms, so they have more flexibility when they enter newsrooms today.”
As a result, young reporters are entering the workforce prepared to handle every facet of modern, multi-modal media.
“In today’s reality, newspapers are doing podcasts and video and social media,” Wright said. “We want our students to be able to do everything.”
Political polarization has further complicated Bidwell’s mission in Paducah. He acknowledges that perception often outweighs facts in the public mind, making trust harder to earn. As a result, he has questioned long-standing newsroom habits and implemented sweeping changes. Among them, WPSD has for the most part turned off Facebook comments, which Bidwell said had become a space for hostility rather than constructive feedback. More significantly, the station has exited national political coverage entirely unless a story has a direct local impact.
“We can describe the outrage without participating in it,” he said, adding that social media is a fertile breeding ground for toxicity and a distraction local newsrooms can ill afford. Attempting to moderate and shepherd it can prove polarizing and demand an outsized share of resources, Bidwell explains.
Furthermore, reimagining how the organization handles national headlines through a regional lens is a priority.
“There are 9,000 places to get national political news,” he said. “You don’t need it from us. We are WPSD Local 6, local is in our name. We have four states to cover. We should be covering what matters here instead of what’s happening in Washington, D.C.”
Newsroom staffing has become a real challenge for every legacy media company, and Bidwell says WPSD, The Sun and its outlier newspapers are no exception. In that environment, concentrating on local news and sports that matter most to the audience takes precedence over producing or repackaging national stories already widely available elsewhere.
“We cover 44 counties in four states,” Bidwell said, noting that audiences under 30 had largely been overlooked in recent years. Reaching that demographic, he said, is now a priority, with a renewed and heavy emphasis on digital platforms.
These challenges echo broader conversations taking place across the media industry. In recent months, senior leaders at major national news organizations have publicly and privately acknowledged that traditional newsroom models are struggling to attract and retain audiences, particularly as consumption habits continue to shift toward digital and on-demand platforms. The message has been clear: legacy media must adapt how it produces and delivers content if it hopes to remain relevant.
Veteran media observer Al Cross, a former Courier-Journal political writer and longtime University of Kentucky journalism professor, notes that media companies across the country are experimenting with new models in search of sustainability.
“There is a great deal of industry talk about newspapers struggling,” Cross said, “but local TV stations are suffering, too, because of streaming and technological alternatives.”
The situation in Paducah offers a fertile field for sharing resources, Cross added, and that’s something most media companies are now quick to deploy when possible.
For Kentucky readers, the rare consolidation of television and traditional print newspapers unfolding in Paducah represents more than a management decision; it is both a symbolic and practical marker of a rapidly evolving media landscape, where survival increasingly depends not on size alone, but on adaptability, innovation and the ability to meet audiences where they are.
As Kentucky’s media landscape continues to evolve, the experiment taking shape in Paducah may offer a model for how legacy institutions adapt without losing sight of their role as chroniclers of community life.
