Cardunal Free Press Newspaper

We bring back Memories you didn’t know you had

Many of us remember our paper route and delivering the Free Press in our neighborhoods.  We also remember trying to collect the subscription fees from our customers.  The Free Press was more than just a  newspaper, it is a huge part of the history of the Carpentersville area.   

The Cardunal Free Press was published in Carpentersville, Illinois by Cardunal Store News, Inc. from 1958 to 1985. The newspaper serviced the Carpentersville area including East and West Dundee, Algonquin, Lake in the Hills and Sleepy Hollow. The newspaper’s name was derived from the town names CAR (Carpentersville), DUN (Dundee), AL (Algonquin). From 1983 to 1985 the newspaper was named the Cardunal Free Press Morning Herald.

In 1983, Shaw Newspapers acquired the Cardunal Free Press, making it the owner of every newspaper based in McHenry County. At the time, these titles were mostly weeklies and small dailies, some with more than 150 years of service to their communities. In 1985, Shaw merged the McHenry County papers into the Northwest Herald, a daily and Saturday newspaper serving all of McHenry County.

On March 12, 1989, the Northwest Herald added a Sunday edition and became McHenry County’s first hometown, seven-day newspaper. It had a daily circulation of 29,688 and its new Sunday edition had 29,337 subscribers, now down to 21,500.

The paper was redesigned for the first time in 1992, with stock quotes added to the Business section and more space and sources for wire stories in the Front section. A Friday entertainment section in tabloid form named Sidetracks was added, as was a Saturday Neighbors section devoted entirely to readers’ submissions.

Beginning in 1992, four different Northwest Herald front pages were printed each weekday. The practice, called zoning, ensured that readers would have the most local news product available to them on the front page of their paper. Zoning of the newspaper eventually would be expanded to seven editions in 2002, but was discontinued in February 2004.

I hope you enjoy looking at some of the great articles and advertisements from the past.