Newspapers
As the county’s population spread to the suburbs, community publications sprang up to focus on local news. The newspaper now known as The Jupiter Courier began in 1957 as a mimeographed shopper called Highlights, then in 1964, under new ownership, was renamed Courier Highlights. In 1978 the Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Company purchased the paper. After several name changes, until 2019 The Jupiter Courier was published twice weekly for readers in the North County area. It was one of more than 20 products daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually out of the St. Lucie West production facility for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.
The Pelican weekly newsletter published local news in Boca Raton starting in mid-1948 (“Weather: A little warm”); when it ended in 1953, a copy cost five cents. The Boca Raton News began weekly publication in 1955. The paper is now owned by the South Florida Media Company.
In the ‘70s, Palm Beach County became corporate headquarters for The National Enquirer. Generoso Paul “Gene” Pope, Jr. (1927-1988), son of a New York power broker who owned Italian-American newspapers, bought The New York Enquirer in 1952 for $75,000, changed it to a tabloid format, and renamed it The National Enquirer; in 1971 he moved the Enquirer to Lantana. Each December until his death in 1988, Pope hosted the largest Christmas tree in the world, shipped from the Pacific Northwest by rail to the grounds of the Enquirer, located adjacent to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. The event grew through the 1970s and ‘80s with lavish displays, attracting thousands of visitors every night.