James W. (Jim) Rainey

Publisher

Jim Rainey has been publisher of the Opelika-Auburn News since December 2002. He also serves as news leader for Media General newspapers, television stations, and affiliated websites in the Gulf South Region. Since 2002, the News has won the Alabama Press Association’s General Excellence Award six of the past seven years. In 2006, the Newspaper Association of America’s Presstime Magazine named Rainey one of the nation’s top 20 newspaper professionals under the age of 40.

Rainey came to Lee County from Atlanta, where he was associate publisher of the Fulton County Daily Report, an American Lawyer Media publication.

[AL 0401] - The Story of The Opelika-Auburn News (3:54)

Jim Rainey, publisher, The Opelika-Auburn News, says The Opelika-Auburn News was founded 106 years ago as the Opelika Daily News. The newspaper’s name was changed by Millard Grimes to include the community of Auburn in the 1980s after a shopping mall opened in that college town. Grimes sold the newspaper to the Thomson Newspapers corporation, and it was subsequently purchased by Media General in 2000.