Then-publisher John B. Gaines (from left) stands outside the Daily News’ College Street offices in 1971 with his son Pipes and his brother, then-president J. Ray Gaines.

John B. Gaines, who spent six decades in a leadership role at the Bowling Green Daily News and influenced the community both through stances he took on the editorial page and through his philanthropy, will be inducted posthumously into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame this summer.

Gaines, who died in 2007 at age 92, spent a total of 69 years at the Daily News, 60 of them in the role of president and publisher of a newspaper established by his grandfather in 1882.

His tenure at the Daily News involved dramatic change as the newspaper made the transition from letterpress to offset printing and the city of Bowling Green went through changes that led to the newspaper taking editorial stances that were influential but at times unpopular.

“John B. Gaines was a journalist’s journalist,” said Pipes Gaines, his son and now Daily News publisher emeritus. “He loved facts, especially printed facts, although he once observed that not everyone liked facts.”

Pipes Gaines said his father was “extremely passionate about transparency in government, particularly as it pertained to open meetings and open records.”

While advocating for such local causes as a countywide library tax and creation of an airport, John B. Gaines was also strengthening the business side of the Daily News.

He and other members of the Gaines family established in 1947 the Daily News Broadcasting Co. that started with the WKCT-AM station and later added the WDNS-FM station.

“He was an awesome businessman who was keenly aware that a newspaper had to be financially strong to withstand pressure from elements in the community that didn’t like facts,” Pipes Gaines said.

The professionalism and integrity of John B. Gaines was also appreciated by one of Bowling Green’s longest-serving politicians.

Jody Richards, who spent 43 years representing the Bowling Green area in the Kentucky General Assembly, called John B. Gaines “an excellent newspaperman and tremendous businessman.”

“The thing I remember about him is that he fought hard for freedom of the press and the people’s right to know,” said Richards, a former journalism instructor at Western Kentucky University. “That’s an issue that people always have to fight for.”

Richards credits John B. Gaines for maintaining the family ownership of the Daily News that is now in its fifth generation.

“Most family businesses don’t make it past two generations,” said Pipes Gaines, whose sons Scott Gaines (publisher) and Steve Gaines (editor) represent the fifth generation of the family to oversee the newspaper.

According to the America’s Newspapers trade association (formerly the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association), the Daily News is the oldest family-owned daily newspaper in the Southeast.

In addition to guiding the Daily News’ editorial and business functions, John B. Gaines also played an important role in advocating for the journalism profession through his leadership of the Kentucky Press Association and other trade groups.

He also helped aspiring journalists through establishment of a scholarship fund for journalism students at Western Kentucky University.

In 2004, John B. Gaines helped the Daily News set up a perpetual fund at WKU that established the Gaines Family Lecture Series that brings in speakers who have achieved prominence in journalism.

For such professionalism and philanthropy, Richards said, “It’s certainly high time that he (John B. Gaines) was included in the hall of fame. I’m certainly pleased that he is going in.”

The University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media that oversees the hall of fame hasn’t yet set a date for the induction of John B. Gaines and seven others, saying in a news release that details about the induction ceremony will be released later this year.

John B. Gaines will be joined in this year’s hall of fame class by:

• Former Kentucky resident Scott Applewhite, a four-decade and Pulitzer Prize-winning senior photojournalist with The Associated Press.
• Paducah native Jerry Brewer, a national sports columnist for The Washington Post.
• The late Melissa Forsythe, who was news anchor and reporter for WAVE-3 and WHAS-11 in Louisville.
• The late Bill Mardis of Somerset, who served more than 50 years as a reporter, editor and columnist at the Commonwealth Journal.
• Mark Maynard of Kentucky Today, an online news service published by the Kentucky Baptist Convention, who also had a distinguished 45-year career at The Daily Independent in Ashland.
• Lexington native Stuart Warner, whose five-decade career included serving as Lexington Herald-Leader sports editor and a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at the Plain Dealer of Cleveland.
• Louisville native Deborah Yetter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who has spent nearly four decades at The Courier-Journal, and before that the Louisville Times.

Created by the UK Journalism Alumni Association in 1981, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame honors journalists who are Kentucky natives or have spent a significant portion of their careers working for Kentucky news media organizations. More than 200 individuals have been inducted.