The Palm Beach Post
The daily newspaper of Palm Beach County, Florida — winner of the 1970 Pulitzer for Feature Photography for Dallas Kinney's "Migration to Misery" portfolio of migrant workers. Owned by Cox from 1969 to 2018, sold to GateHouse for $49.25M, and folded into Gannett in the 2019 merger.
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- Location
- West Palm Beach, Florida
- Country
- United States
- What it is
- Daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County and parts of Florida's Treasure Coast
- Pulitzer
- 1970, Feature Photography — Dallas Kinney, for the portfolio of Florida migrant-worker pictures "Migration to Misery"
- Ownership
- Cox Enterprises (1969–2018); GateHouse/New Media Investment Group from 2018; Gannett since the 2019 GateHouse–Gannett merger
- 2018 sale
- New Media Investment Group agreed to buy the Post and the Palm Beach Daily News for $49.25 million (announced March 2018)
- 2019 merger
- GateHouse's parent bought Gannett for about $1.4 billion; the combined company kept the Gannett name
- 1947 chapter
- John Holliday Perry bought the publications from the E.R. Bradley estate; Charles Francis Coe was named editor-publisher
Overview
The Palm Beach Post is the daily newspaper of Palm Beach County, Florida, serving the county and parts of the Treasure Coast. Its defining journalistic honor came in 1970, when photographer Dallas Kinney won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for “Migration to Misery,” his portfolio of pictures of Florida migrant workers (The Pulitzer Prizes). The paper was owned by Cox Enterprises from 1969 until 2018, when it was sold to GateHouse Media’s parent for $49.25 million — and a year later it was folded into Gannett in the $1.4 billion GateHouse–Gannett merger (Akron Beacon Journal; Poynter).
“Migration to Misery”: the 1970 Pulitzer
The series that won the paper’s only Pulitzer began with two new hires. Dallas Kinney, described as an immensely talented visual journalist, had joined the Post from the Miami Herald along with his writing partner Kent Pollock; together they produced a series on Florida’s migrant laborers called “Migration to Misery,” and Kinney’s photographs captured the Pulitzer for Feature Photography (Poynter). The newsroom that celebrated was strikingly young — the average age of the Post staff was about 26, the managing editor Dave Lawrence was 28 — and the announcement arrived on the same day as the Kent State shootings, whose iconic photograph would win a Pulitzer the following year (Poynter).
The sobering coda: while the story and pictures brought some initial changes to the migrants’ lives, the Post went back 30 years later and found that things had not changed that much (Poynter).
Cox decades and the 2018 sale
The paper’s institutional memory runs through two mid-century names. In 1947, John Holliday Perry bought the publications from the estate of E.R. Bradley, and Charles Francis Coe was named editor-publisher; Coe received the Freedoms Foundation’s George Washington Honor Medal on 21 November 1949 (New York Social Diary). Decades later, the Post and Daily News photo morgue — roughly a million images — was donated to the Historical Society of Palm Beach County (New York Social Diary).
Cox Enterprises bought the paper in 1969 and owned it for nearly 50 years (Akron Beacon Journal). In March 2018, New Media Investment Group — the parent of GateHouse Media, then owner of more than 140 daily newspapers — agreed to buy the Post and the Palm Beach Daily News for $49.25 million, with closing expected by May (Akron Beacon Journal). At the time the flagship’s circulation was about 80,000 daily and 102,000 on Sundays, while the Daily News — “The Shiny Sheet,” then 120 years old — circulated more than 4,500 daily from October to May (Akron Beacon Journal). Cox kept the newspaper’s building and seven acres on Dixie Highway and Belvedere, valued at $15.4 million (Akron Beacon Journal). Then, in 2019, GateHouse’s parent bought Gannett for about $1.4 billion, and the combined company — the largest newspaper group in the country — took the Gannett name, headquartered in McLean, Virginia (Poynter).
The Post in 2026: Trump-era Palm Beach
In a county that has become the center of Trump-world gravity, the Post’s recent signature work has been chronicling the family. On 18 September 2026, the paper published a detailed timeline reconstructing Donald Trump Jr.’s relationship with Bettina Anderson through their May 21, 2026 wedding (The Palm Beach Post). Ten days earlier, its roundup of celebrity schoolchildren reported that Barron Trump was entering his junior year at NYU’s Stern School of Business in fall 2026 — having started in September 2024 as part of the class of 2028, after graduating from Oxbridge Academy on 17 May 2024 (The Palm Beach Post).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not assert a founding date or a pre-1969 ownership chain — those details appear only in Wikipedia and its mirrors and are not verified here. It reports the announced 2018 sale price ($49.25 million) from contemporaneous reporting, not the lower figure some secondary sources give. The 1947 Perry purchase and the Coe details come via the New York Social Diary’s account of the Historical Society’s collection and are presented as its account. The 2026 Anderson and Barron Trump items are the Post’s own reporting, presented as what the paper reported — not as independently verified facts about those individuals.
Timeline
- 1947
- John Holliday Perry bought the publications from the estate of E.R. Bradley; Charles Francis Coe was named editor-publisher.
- 1949
- Coe received the Freedoms Foundation's George Washington Honor Medal on 21 November.
- 1969
- Cox Enterprises bought the Post, beginning nearly five decades of Cox ownership.
- 1970
- Photographer Dallas Kinney won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for "Migration to Misery," his portfolio of pictures of Florida migrant workers.
- 2018
- In March, New Media Investment Group agreed to buy the Post and the Palm Beach Daily News for $49.25 million, with closing expected by May; Cox kept the newspaper's building and land.
- 2019
- GateHouse parent New Media bought Gannett for about $1.4 billion; the combined company took the Gannett name, headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
- 2026
- The Post published a September 18 timeline of the Donald Trump Jr.–Bettina Anderson relationship through their May 21 wedding, and a September 8 roundup on celebrity schoolchildren including Barron Trump at NYU.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The announced 2018 price was $49.25 million; some secondary sources give $42.35 million. This profile reports the announced figure from the contemporaneous reporting.
- Founding details ("1910 weekly," "5 January 1916 daily") and the pre-1969 chain (Bradley 1934, Perry 1947/48, Evening Times 1987 merger, Miami News 1989 assets) appear only in Wikipedia and mirrors and are not asserted here.
- The 1947 Perry purchase and Coe details come via the New York Social Diary's report on the Historical Society of Palm Beach County's collection — a tier3 source, presented as its account.
- The 2026 Anderson and Barron Trump items are the Post's own reporting, presented as what the paper reported.
Sources
7 sources (1 tier 1, 3 tier 2, 1 tier 3, 2 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
This profile is built from seven sources read in full: the Pulitzer organization's 1970 winners page, a first-person Poynter account of the Pulitzer win, the New York Social Diary's report on the Historical Society's photo collection (the 1947 Perry purchase), two Beacon Journal reports (the 2018 sale), a Poynter report on the 2019 GateHouse–Gannett merger, and the Post's own September 2026 reporting on Bettina Anderson and Barron Trump. It leads with the "Migration to Misery" Pulitzer story, which page-one SERP summaries compress into a line.
- Supports: 1970 Feature Photography: Dallas Kinney of Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, FL, "for his portfolio of pictures of Florida migrant workers, 'Migration to Misery'" Open original source
- Recalling the Pulitzer Rush Tier 2Supports: First-person account: Kinney joined from the Miami Herald with writer Kent Pollock; series "Migration to Misery" on Florida migrant laborers; staff average age ~26, managing editor Dave Lawrence 28; Pulitzer day coincided with Kent State; 30 years later the Post found migrants' lives little changed Open original source
- Supports: $49.25M deal announced; New Media/GateHouse (140+ dailies); owned since 1969 by Cox Enterprises; sale expected by May; Reed "primary source of news… for over 100 years"; ~80K daily / 102K Sunday circulation; Daily News "Shiny Sheet" 120 years, 4,500+ daily Oct–May; Cox kept building (Dixie Hwy/Belvedere, 7 acres, $15.4M); publisher Tim Burke Open original source
- Supports: GateHouse/New Media bought Gannett for ~$1.4B; combined company keeps Gannett name, HQ McLean VA; largest newspaper group Open original source
- Supports: 1947: John Holliday Perry bought publications from E.R. Bradley estate; Charles Francis Coe named editor-publisher; Coe received Freedoms Foundation's George Washington Honor Medal 21 Nov 1949; Post/Daily News photo morgue (~1M images) donated to Historical Society of Palm Beach County Open original source
- Supports: The paper's own Sept 18 2026 timeline reconstructing the Trump Jr.–Anderson relationship through the May 21 2026 wedding — anchor for the Bettina Anderson backlink Open original source
- Supports: The paper's own Sept 8 2026 roundup: Barron Trump a junior at NYU Stern in fall 2026, started Sept 2024, class of 2028, Oxbridge Academy graduation May 17 2024 — anchor for the Barron Trump backlink Open original source
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