Type Daily newspaper Publisher H. Brandt Ayers | Format Broadsheet Editor Bob Davis | |
 | ||
Owner(s) Consolidated Publishing Co. Founded 1883
(as "The Hot Blast") | ||
The Anniston Star is the daily newspaper serving Anniston, Alabama, and the surrounding six-county region. Average Sunday circulation in September 2004 was 26,747. The newspaper is locally owned by Consolidated Publishing Company, which is controlled by the descendants of Col. Harry M. Ayers, one of the newspaper's early owners.
The Star is Consolidated's flagship paper. Other newspapers printed by the company include The Daily Home, and the weeklies The Cleburne News, the Jacksonville News, the St. Clair Times, and the Piedmont Journal.
The current publisher, H. Brandt Ayers, is the son of Col. Ayers. During the Civil Rights Movement the Star gained a reputation as one of the few liberal-minded Southern newspapers. It was nicknamed "The Red Star" by George Wallace, because of its support of school integration — one of the few Southern newspapers to take such a stance.
The Star is a community newspaper and the dominant source of retail advertising in the region. It's online edition offers the content of the print edition, along with syndicated articles from Consolidated's network papers.