The article profiles the family of Len Robert Small, president of Small Newspaper Group Inc. The family's Midwestern publishing empire is based in Kankakee, Illinois, but has tentacles in Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa and as far afield as California. Small Newspaper Group has seven daily and weekly titles, including the 28,000-circulation Daily Journal in Kankakee and the 43,000-circulation Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minnesota. Until his death in a car accident in 1980, Len remained at the paper as the company diversified, adding titles from Iowa to Indiana and California. His brother, Burrell Small, struck out on his own in 1969, taking with him the family's dozen or so broadcast properties, which included a Kankakee radio station and cable television franchise.