Focusing on news that is local to the area of southwestern Illinois, it has been published under various names for 150 years.

Beginning Oct. 30, 2023, the paper will have its print days reduced to two a week, Wednesdays and Sundays, and be delivered by U.S Postal.

[2] The Belleville News-Democrat has been featured on the television programs 60 Minutes, Dateline and Nightline, as an example of investigative reporting.

It is also the only newspaper in Illinois or Missouri to grow net paid circulation for ten years in a row, and is a frequent winner in state and regional journalism awards.

In 2007, News-Democrat reporters Beth Hundsdorfer and George Pawlaczyk won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "Lethal Lapses", a series investigating errors of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that resulted in the deaths of 53 children.