The Lavine Newspaper Group (LNG) was established by Max Lavine, general manager of the Superior Evening Telegram and a prominent citizen of Superior, Wisconsin. In 1959 he formed the Register Publishing Company and purchased the Portage Daily Register, while retaining W.T. Comstock as its publisher. In 1964 he purchased the Chippewa Herald-Telegram from the Morgan Murphy Newspaper Group. When he died a few months later, Lavine's newspapers were inherited by his son, John M. Lavine, who at age 23 became one of the youngest newspaper publishers in the country.
John M. Lavine was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on March 20, 1941 and raised in Superior, Wisconsin. After attending the local public schools he studied at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut and at Carleton College. He graduated with a B.A. in 1963 and later did graduate work at the University of Minnesota. John Lavine's first work as a journalist was for the Murphy Newspapers and as an intern at the White House in 1962.
After becoming publisher, Lavine quickly energized the Herald-Telegram and the Register, winning a reputation as a crusading newspaperman. Eventually he expanded his holdings to include the Baraboo News-Republic and the Shawano Evening Leader. He also purchased but soon sold the Reedsburg paper.
After becoming publisher of the Herald-Telegram, John Lavine settled near Chippewa Falls. In 1963 he married Dana Raihill and they had two children. The Lavines eventually divorced and both partners remarried. Following the pattern of community involvement established by his parents, Lavine was actively involved in civic and religious matters, and in 1966 the Wisconsin Jaycees named him as one of five outstanding young men in the state. Lavine had a particularly strong interest in education, serving on the boards of both Coker and Emerson colleges. In 1971 Governor Patrick Lucey named him to the Board of Regents of the State Universities. After the merger, Lavine continued on the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. In this position he was a leader in the Regents' review of collective bargaining for faculty. He was also known for his support of minority students. Lavine was also an active member of the Inland Daily Press Association, particularly with regard to its annual cost and revenue studies, and served as president in 1983.
In 1984 Lavine was named the Cowles chair of the School of Journalism at the University of Minnesota. In 1989 he became the founding director of Northwestern University's Media Management Center, a program established to study newspaper readership and media trends. In 2006 he was chosen as dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.
After moving to Chicago, in 1992 John Lavine sold his newspapers to the newly-created Independent Media Group (IMG), which consisted of 21 newspapers located in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nebraska. IMG was then sold in 2000. At this time the Chippewa Herald-Telegram was sold to Lee Enterprises, while Madison Newspapers Inc. purchased the Portage, Baraboo, and Shawano papers.
