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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D. C. 20549

FORM 10-K

Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003

Commission File Number: 1-31805

JOURNAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (414) 224-2616

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Class B-1 Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share

Class B-2 Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share

(title of class)

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes   x     No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (Section 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2)    Yes  ¨     No  x

State the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second quarter: Not applicable.

Number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock as of March 2, 2004 (excluding 4,338,352 and 4,338,353 shares of class B-1 and B-2 common stock, respectively, held by our subsidiary, The Journal Company):

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Portions of the Proxy Statement for our April 29, 2004 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference into Part III.

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JOURNAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

INDEX TO FORM 10-K

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Forward-Looking Statements

We make certain statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (including the information that we incorporate by reference herein) that are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in that Act, and we are including this statement for purposes of those safe harbor provisions. These forward-looking statements generally include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy, budgets, projected revenues and expenses, expected regulatory actions and plans and objectives of management for future operations. We use words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “believe,” or “should” and similar expressions in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to identify forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. These risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Among such risks, uncertainties and other factors that may impact us are the following:

We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which we have made as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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PART I

Permanent Capital Transaction

On May 9, 2003, the Wisconsin corporation then known as Journal Communications, Inc. and now known as The Journal Company (“Old Journal”), formed a wholly owned subsidiary then known as The Journal Company and now known as Journal Communications, Inc. (“New Journal”) for the purposes of facilitating the permanent capital transactions.

On September 29, 2003, the shareholders of Old Journal (including the Journal Employees Stock Trust (“JESTA”)), Matex Inc. and the Abert Family Journal Stock Trust (the latter two of which we refer to as the “Grant family shareholders”) effected a share exchange with New Journal pursuant to which JESTA and the Grant family shareholders exchanged each share of their Old Journal common stock for three shares of class B common stock (divided as equally as possible into class B-1 common stock and class B-2 common stock) and following which Old Journal became a wholly owned subsidiary of New Journal. JESTA then terminated and distributed the class B common stock that it received in the share exchange to its former unitholders on a three-shares-for-one-unit basis, with such shares divided as equally as possible into class B-1 common stock and class B-2 common stock. Each share of class B-1 and class B-2 shares are identical except for restrictions on when a holder can convert them into class A common stock and sell them to the public. Under the public sale restriction periods in our articles of incorporation, class B-1 and class B-2 shares may not be converted until September 17, 2004 or March 16, 2005, respectively. There is no public trading market for the class B common stock, although shares can be offered for sale to eligible purchasers under our articles of incorporation.

Immediately after the share exchange and immediately before the termination of JESTA and the closing of the initial public offering, the Grant family shareholders exchanged approximately 41.5% of their class B shares they received in the share exchange for 3,264,000 shares of class C common stock. The Grant family shareholders participated in the initial public offering for a certain number of shares of their class B common stock, which were convertible into class A common stock.

After the completion of our share exchange and the termination of JESTA, we effected an initial public offering of 19,837,500 shares of our class A common stock, of which 19,441,500 shares were sold by us and 396,000 by the Abert Family Journal Stock Trust. Net proceeds to us were approximately $266.6 million.

On October 3, 2003, we commenced our tender offer to purchase up to 22,674,401 shares, or approximately $340.1 million worth of our class B-1 common stock. The tender offer expired on November 3, 2003 and we purchased and immediately retired 19,999,752 shares, or approximately $300.0 million (plus related expenses) worth of class B-1 common stock. The purpose of the tender offer was to allow our class B shareholders, who are employee and former employee investors in JESTA, to obtain liquidity for a certain portion of their shares so that they could reduce their personal debt previously incurred to purchase units of beneficial interest in that trust. The tender offer was contemplated and disclosed to our shareholders prior to the share exchange and as part of the initial public offering in order to effect a “synthetic secondary” offering.

We refer to these series of transactions described above collectively as the “permanent capital transaction.” In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “we,” “us,” “our” and similar terms refer to New Journal.

Overview

We are a diversified media and communications company with operations in publishing, radio and television broadcasting, telecommunications and printing services. In newspaper publishing, we publish the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which serves as the only major daily and Sunday newspaper for the Milwaukee metropolitan area, and we publish more than 90 community newspapers and shoppers in eight states. We own

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and operate 38 radio stations and six television stations in 11 states. Through our subsidiary, Norlight Telecommunications, Inc., we provide telecommunications services through our large fiber optic network. We also provide a wide range of commercial and publication printing services including magazines, professional journals and documentation material, as well as electronic publishing, kit assembly and fulfillment. In 2003, our total operating revenue was $798.3 million, 58.6% of which was generated from our publishing and broadcasting operations, 18.7% from telecommunications and 22.7% from printing services and other operations.

We were founded in 1882 as a newspaper publisher serving Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Our media business mix was expanded in 1927 when we signed on WTMJ radio station, and again in 1947 when we put WTMJ-TV on the air. In 1937, Harry J. Grant founded our employee ownership plan, which contributed significantly to our company’s positive culture and growth through its termination in 2003. We believe employee ownership has served as a competitive advantage for our company since JESTA was established. And, even though JESTA no longer exists, we believe our new capital structure allows us to continue our longstanding tradition of employee ownership. We have been able to attract and retain motivated people who have a passion for the business and a level of commitment and sense of accountability that is heightened due to their participation in ownership. Our culture is reinforced by our strong commitment to high ethical standards.

Our business segments are based on the organizational structure used by management for making operating and investment decisions and for assessing performance. Our reportable business segments are: (i) publishing; (ii) broadcasting; (iii) telecommunications; (iv) printing services; and (v) other.

The operating revenue generated by each operating segment, as a percentage of our consolidated operating revenue, for the last three years is shown below.

More information regarding us is available at our website at www.jc.com. We are not including the information contained on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports are made available to the public at no charge, other than a reader’s own internet access charges, through a link appearing on our website. We provide access to such material through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Publishing

Our publishing business consists of our daily newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and our community newspapers and shoppers. Our publishing business accounted for 39.7% of our operating revenue and 29.3% of our operating earnings for the year ended December 31, 2003. Within our publishing segment, our daily newspaper accounted for 69.3% of our publishing operating revenue and 87.3% of our publishing operating earnings in 2003. See Note 13 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for additional financial information regarding our publishing business.

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Daily Newspaper

Published continuously from 1882, our daily newspaper has the largest circulation of all newspapers published in Wisconsin, with a circulation of approximately 438,000 on Sunday and 243,000 daily. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel serves as the only major daily and Sunday newspaper for the Milwaukee metropolitan area. According to a 2003 readership survey conducted by Scarborough Research, the Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ranks number two in readership penetration among the 50 largest geographic markets in the United States, and the daily newspaper ranks number three. These rankings are calculated by dividing the number of adults reading the newspaper in a newspaper’s Metropolitan Statistical Area by the number of persons over the age of 18 in the newspaper’s MSA. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s MSA, which ranks among the top 50 in the United States, consists of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties. In addition, according to data published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, for the six month period ended September 30, 2003, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Sunday circulation ranked number 23 in the United States.

In addition to our traditional print media, we operate a number of websites that provide editorial and advertising content, including JSOnline.com and OnWisconsin.com. Also, we have developed a subscription-based website, Packerinsider.com, dedicated to coverage of the Green Bay Packers, to which viewers must pay to subscribe. Our online revenue exceeded its direct operating costs for the first time in 2003, and we continue to seek ways to best serve the growing population interested in deriving news from the Internet.

Our new production facility, which became operational in March of 2003, is the largest capital investment in our history at a cost of $113 million. The 448,750 square-foot facility is on a 41-acre site in an industrial area in the village of West Milwaukee. The facility houses all printing, packaging, inserting, recycling and transportation processes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Our new presses and related printing processes are providing improved print reproduction quality and increased productivity, as well as additional opportunities for commercial printing revenue from third parties.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is distributed primarily by independent contract carriers throughout southeastern Wisconsin and a small portion of northern Illinois. Agents deliver the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to single copy outlets throughout the rest of Wisconsin.

Our primary goal is to grow readership, circulation, revenue and margins in our five-county primary market area (which we refer to as our “PMA”). While our efforts center on this five-county region, we also actively seek expansion opportunities in nearby market areas. In order to achieve this goal, we have developed strategies based on the findings of the nationwide survey of 37,000 newspaper readers by the Readership Institute at Northwestern University. This study, conducted in 2001 in about 100 markets including Milwaukee, concluded that the most important objective for the newspaper industry is readership growth. The Institute identified four cornerstones for increasing readership growth: compelling content, a strong brand, over-the-top customer service and a constructive culture. We have adopted those cornerstones as our strategic imperatives. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is focused on increasing the appeal of both its editorial and advertising content in order to better meet readers’ interests and to make the paper easier to read and navigate. We have undertaken concentrated efforts to develop, implement, communicate and track strategies to grow our well-established brand. As one of our top customer service priorities, we are committed to on-time delivery. Finally, we are focused on enhancing our constructive, collaborative internal culture to support additional readership growth.

Although the penetration of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel among southeastern Wisconsin readers is generally high, the newspaper still has significant growth potential, especially in targeted ZIP codes in which the newspaper’s penetration level remains low. As part of a targeted readership growth strategy, we undertook in 2003 a program called the “Milwaukee Initiative,” with discounted subscription and single copy offers and outreach programs at churches, educational institutions and apartment complexes. We believe this initiative helped increase circulation and subscription revenue and enhance our appeal to advertisers in Milwaukee County.

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The following table sets forth our circulation data based on Audit Bureau of Circulations averages for the six-month periods ending September 30:

The increase in average net paid circulation from September 30, 2002 to September 30, 2003 was caused primarily by our “Milwaukee Initiative.” As a result, average net paid circulation increased by 0.8% for both our daily paper and our Sunday paper.

Circulation revenue accounted for 20.0% of our daily newspaper’s total operating revenue in 2003. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel single copy prices are $0.50 for daily and $1.75 for Sunday in our PMA.

Advertising revenue accounted for 77.7% of our daily newspaper’s total operating revenue in 2003. We have set forth in the table below annual advertising volume for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (measured in column inches) and the number of preprints (which are individual customer’s advertisements that are provided by the customer and that are inserted into the newspapers) inserted into the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s daily and Sunday editions and its total market coverage (TMC) product, Weekend Plus, for the last five calendar years. We believe the advertising volume decline during 2003 in “full run” (which refers to advertisements that are published in all editions of the newspaper, as opposed to “part run” which refers to advertisements published in only certain editions of the newspaper) was a result of advertisers switching to preprints and direct mail and the downturn in employment advertising. We believe more advertisers are switching to preprints because preprints can offer better opportunities for targeted advertising, better print quality and, possibly, lower cost.

Community Newspapers and Shoppers

We own and operate more than 90 community newspapers and shoppers and six printing plants through our subsidiary, Journal Community Publishing Group (formerly known as Add, Inc.). Advertising revenue and circulation revenue accounted for 68.6% and 3.0%, respectively, of our community newspapers’ and shoppers’ total operating revenue in 2003. We publish 40 shoppers with a combined circulation of more than 780,000 each week. Shoppers are free publications, primarily carrier-delivered to each household in a geographic area, featuring advertisements primarily from local and regional businesses. A few of our shoppers also include local interest stories and weekly columns, such as fishing/hunting reports, obituaries and television listings. These shoppers are delivered to various communities in Wisconsin, Ohio, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts.

We publish 47 community newspapers, with a combined paid and unpaid circulation of more than 300,000 weekly. Our community newspapers focus on local news and events that are of interest to the local residents. In some markets, our community newspapers are the only source of local news. These local newspapers serve communities in Wisconsin, Connecticut and Florida.

We also publish 11 niche publications that appeal to a very specific advertiser and reader. A few examples of the niche products are automotive and boating focused publications. We provide niche publications in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Florida and New York.

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In addition to our publishing operations, we also provide commercial printing services including cold-web printing, sheet-fed printing, electronic prepress, bindery and inserting mostly for other weekly and monthly publications. Revenue from commercial printing accounted for 28.4% of our community newspapers’ and shoppers’ total operating revenue in 2003.

Our community newspapers, shoppers and niche publication groups are:

Newsprint

The basic raw material of newspapers is newsprint. We currently purchase approximately 95% of our estimated newsprint requirements from two suppliers. We pay market prices for quantities we determine will meet our requirements. The remaining 5% of our newsprint could come from these suppliers or from other suppliers in the spot market.

We believe we will continue to receive an adequate supply of newsprint for our needs. Newsprint prices fluctuate based upon market factors, which include newsprint production capacity, inventory levels, demand and consumption. Price fluctuations for newsprint can have a significant effect on our results of operations. The average net price per ton was $478 in 2003 compared to an average net price per ton of $442 in 2002. Our consumption of newsprint decreased to 78,605 metric tons in 2003 from 79,774 metric tons in 2002, and our total cost of newsprint increased $1.6 million during 2003. Based on the average net price per ton in 2003 and consumption of newsprint in 2003, a $10 per ton increase or decrease in the price of newsprint would increase or decrease our total cost of newsprint by $0.8 million.

The decrease in consumption in 2003 is primarily attributed to the smaller page size printed on the daily newspaper’s new presses. This decrease in consumption was partially offset by an increase in consumption attributed to obtaining new printing business at our community newspapers and shoppers.

Industry and Competition

Newspaper publishing is the oldest segment of the media industry. Metropolitan and community newspapers often represent the dominant medium for local advertising due to their importance to the communities they serve. We believe newspapers continue to be one of the most effective mediums for retail and classified advertising because they allow advertisers to promote the price and selection of goods and to maximize household reach. Notwithstanding the advertising advantages newspapers offer, newspapers have many competitors for advertising dollars and paid circulation. These competitors include local, regional and national newspapers, shoppers, magazines, broadcast and cable television, radio, direct mail, yellow pages, the Internet and other media. Competition for newspaper advertising revenue is based largely upon advertiser results, advertising rates, readership, demographics and circulation levels, while competition for circulation is based largely upon the content of the newspaper, its price, editorial quality, and customer service. On occasion, our businesses compete with each other for regional and local advertising, specifically in the Milwaukee market.

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Advertising revenue is the largest component of a newspaper’s total operating revenue. Advertising rates at newspapers, free circulars and publications are usually based on market size, circulation, penetration, demographics and alternative advertising media available in the marketplace. Newspaper advertising revenue is cyclical. Our publishing business tends to see increased operating revenue due to increased advertising activity during certain holidays, in time for summer shopping and just prior to students returning to school. Advertising revenue is also generally affected by changes in national and regional economic conditions. Classified advertising is generally the most sensitive to economic cycles because it is driven primarily by the demand for employment, real estate transactions and automotive sales.

Although there are several major national newspaper companies, we believe that the newspaper publishing industry in the United States remains highly fragmented. Many smaller publications are owned and operated by individuals whose newspaper holdings and financial resources are generally limited. Further, we believe that relatively few daily newspapers have been established in recent years due to the high cost of starting a daily newspaper operation and building a franchise identity. Moreover, most markets cannot sustain more than one daily newspaper.

Broadcasting

Our broadcasting business is conducted through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Journal Broadcast Corporation (doing business as Journal Broadcast Group), and its subsidiaries, which together operate six television stations and 38 radio stations in 11 states. Our broadcasting business accounted for 18.9% of our operating revenue and 26.3% of our operating earnings for the year ended December 31, 2003. See Note 13 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for additional financial information regarding our broadcasting business.

Our radio and television stations focus on providing targeted and relevant local programming that is responsive to the interests of the communities in which they compete. We promote a local focus that allows our stations and clusters to serve listeners, viewers and advertisers more effectively, strengthens each station’s brand identity and allows our stations to provide effective marketing solutions for local advertisers by reaching their targeted audiences.

Radio Broadcasting

Based on the Fall 2003 Arbitron ratings book, we have the number one station in terms of station audience rank in five of the eight markets in which our radio stations operate, including in Milwaukee where WTMJ-AM has been the top rated radio station for 30 consecutive Arbitron rating periods. We have grown our radio operations primarily through acquisitions of stations in mid-sized growth markets. We have acquired 17 of our 38 radio stations since 1999. In 2003, operating revenue from radio operations accounted for 51.7% percent of our broadcasting operating revenue.

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Our radio stations are: