The Tri-County Journal is owned by Pulitzer Publications, founded in 1878, the same owner as the Saint Louis Post Dispatch. It covers the local news in Pacific, Eureka, Robertsville, Villa Ridge, Labadie, Catawissa, Saint Clair, and Gray Summit.
The Tri-County Journal was formerly delivered free of charge to residents of Jefferson, Franklin, and Saint Louis counties on Tuesdays. The paper now requires a subscription.
Some recipients of the newspaper believe that the Tri-County Journal tends to have a Saint Louis County bias on local news stories and prefer to get their news from the Washington Missourian instead.
While the paper was free, one of the more popular and controversial sections was the sound off section. This section allowed readers of the paper to call an answering machine and leave comments to be printed in the paper. A name was not required to have these comments printed.