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 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 Star-Journal an Sedalia Democrat 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, operates 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.