[1] The newspaper is locally owned by Consolidated Publishing Company, which is controlled by the Ayers family of Anniston.

By 1912, the Hot Blast had become Anniston's largest newspaper, and was more than large enough to absorb the Evening Star.

Under the younger Ayers' watch, the Star reversed its initial skepticism toward the Civil Rights Movement and strongly supported school integration, one of the few Southern papers to do so.

It has consistently remained one of the more liberal newspapers in a state that has grown increasingly friendly to Republicans.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Anthony Cook, head of the Star's publishing company, announced that the editorial page was to be discontinued.

[1] On January 2, 2018, during the Me Too movement, former publisher H. Brandt Ayers admitted that he assaulted Wendy Sigal in her Anniston home in the 1970s.