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  • Commonly known as the Bowling Green Daily News, the paper traces its roots to the Bowling Green Democrat, originally the Gazette, which was founded in 1854. In 1882, John B. Gaines established the Daily Times. The newspapers later were merged into what became the predecessor to the Daily News.

    The newspaper was owned by the Gaines family for 140 years. On July 1, 2022, the newspaper was acquired by Bowling Green Newsmedia LLC, part of Carpenter Newsmedia LLC and Boone Newspapers Inc.

    A lot of people ask why a paper based in Bowling Green would bear the name “Park City,” which is the name of a town about 20 miles to the north.

    The Park City Daily News owes its name to a speech by noted Louisville editor Henry Watterson at Bowling Green’s Fountain Square Park in 1892. Watterson told the crowd gathered to commemorate the city’s first park that Bowling Green one day might be known as the “beautiful park city.”

    The Barren County city of Park City was named Glasgow Junction at the time and there was a pleasant ring to the phrase “park city”, which soon began appearing in the names of various businesses.

    It was only natural that the late John B. Gaines join his fellow businessmen and include the phrase in naming his newspaper. Then came the establishment of Park City in Barren County and newcomers became confused. Merchants began to refrain from using “park city” and today only the Daily News still pays tribute to its heritage by using “park city” on its front page.

    Longtime subscribers still refer to the newspaper as the “park city.” The newspaper today has grown to cover a six-county region, with its primary emphasis on Warren County. It publishes six days a week – Monday through Friday and on Sunday.

    On July 1, 2022 the Bowling Green Daily News to Carpenter Newsmedia LLC, an affiliate of Boone Newspapers Inc., a family-owned organization based in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

  • Bowling Green is a thriving hub for business, education and health care in south-central Kentucky, and the city continues to enjoy rapid economic and population growth that has been underway for more than two decades.

    Essentially equidistant from Nashville, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky., along Interstate 65 – a major north-south artery connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes region – Bowling Green’s population now tops 72,000, a roughly 24 percent increase since 2012. Warren County’s total population, meanwhile, has surged from about 92,000 in 2000 to nearly 135,000 today and is expected to reach 225,000 by 2040.

    According to U.S. Census Bureau data, there are more than 25,000 households in Bowling Green, and the median annual household income is more than $42,000.

    The 10-county region boasts a population of about 290,000, a labor market area population of 2.1 million and a labor market area workforce of more than 1 million, according to data published by the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce.

    The largest employers in south-central Kentucky are concentrated in the health, education and manufacturing fields:

    1. Houchens Industries, headquarters in Warren County; 5,467 total employees across numerous companies and properties.
    2. Med Center Health, headquarters in Warren County; 3,566 employees.
    3. Warren County Public Schools; 2,565 employees.
    4. Western Kentucky University; main campus in Warren County; 1,854 employees.
    5. Dart Container Corp., facilities in Horse Cave, Ky.; 1,600 employees.
    6. Logan Aluminum Inc.; headquarters in Logan County; 1,345 employees.
    7. Fruit of the Loom Inc., international headquarters in Warren County; 1,310 employees.
    8. Bowling Green Metalforming, facilities in Warren County; 1,251 employees.
    9. T.J. Regional Health, headquarters in Barren County; 1,114 employees.
    10. General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant, facilities in Warren County; 1,100 employees.

    There are two major industrial parks: the South Central Kentucky Industrial Park on the southern end of Bowling Green, and the Kentucky Transpark at the northeastern end. Both locations are already home to numerous manufacturers, and in February 2022, Tyson Foods broke ground in the Kentucky Transpark on a 400,000-square-foot bacon-processing plant that is projected to employ 450 employees after it opens in 2023.

    There are dozens of shopping centers throughout Bowling Green, but the dining and retail sectors are anchored along the Scottsville Road and Campbell Lane corridors. These thoroughfares, which intersect near the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport in the southeastern portion of the city, are host to numerous restaurants, grocery stores and retail hubs such as Greenwood Mall.

    There has been a revitalization of downtown Bowling Green, where the paper sits just one block off the square. Multiple mixed use business and apartment buildings have added more than 500 apartments and a dozen shops between the downtown square, Circus Square and the river.

    Plans for a large riverfront development are in the works with several businesses committing to build according to the Bowling Green/Warren County Chamber of Commerce.

    Bowling Green’s growth has been fueled by Nashville’s unprecedented growth to our south.