The Warrensburg Star-Journal began as The Journal on April 17, 1865, as a weekly newspaper. A competitor, The Democrat, emerged in 1871. On Oct. 6, 1876, a merger established The Journal-Democrat.
In June 1883, The Johnson County Star moved from Knob Noster to Warrensburg, and five years later on Feb. 6, 1913, the Journal-Democrat merged with the Johnson County Star to become the Star-Journal.
The Daily Star-Journal was a daily newspaper for decades but became a weekly publication in 2020. After being owned by NPG Newspapers Inc. since 2007, the Star-Journal has been owned by the Sedalia Democrat and Phillips Media Group since Oct. 1, 2020. The name was changed from Daily Star-Journal to Star-Journal, and in 2021, the Star-Journal returned to being a twice-weekly newspaper.
The Star-Journal is Johnson County’s primary source for daily local news coverage. We reach more than 4,000 readers in Johnson County every Tuesday and Friday with our print newspaper. Thousands of unique viewers visit our website every month for the latest breaking news stories.
The Star-Journal newsroom took home three awards in the Missouri Press Association Better Newspaper Contest for work published in 2022. The Star-Journal competed against other weekly newspapers of similar circulation size.
The Democrat and Star-Journal also produce the Plainsman, which is distributed every Wednesday. More than 23,000 copies are distributed by home delivery and racks in Pettis, Johnson, Benton, Morgan, and Henry counties.
The Sedalia Democrat in Sedalia, Missouri, owns the Warrensburg Star-Journal. It is a twice-weekly newspaper that reaches more than 15,000 subscribers in Pettis County and five neighboring counties every Tuesday and Friday. Some 64,000 unique viewers visit the Sedalia website every month.