The Ledger
The Ledger is a daily newspaper serving Lakeland, Florida, and the Polk County area.
Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | Gannett |
Publisher | Brian Burns |
Editor | Bob Heist |
Founded | August 22, 1924 |
Headquarters | Lakeland, Florida |
ISSN | 0163-0288 |
OCLC number | 187953892 |
Website | TheLedger.com |
The paper was founded on August 22, 1924 as the Lakeland Evening Ledger. In 1927, it bought its main competitor, the morning Lakeland Star-Telegram. By 1930, it was obvious that Lakeland could not support two papers, so Ledger Publishing Company merged the two papers into a single morning paper, the Lakeland Ledger and Star-Telegram. In 1941, Star-Telegram was dropped from the masthead, and in 1967 the name was shortened to simply The Ledger.
The New York Times Company bought The Ledger in 1970 and owned it until 2012, when it sold its entire regional newspaper group to Halifax Media.[1] In 2015, Halifax was acquired by New Media Investment Group.[2]
Jerome Ferson became publisher of the newspaper on July 30, 2007. Kevin Drake became publisher of the newspaper on January 21, 2014. [3] In October 2016, Drake left The Ledger to return to his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, to work as a group publisher for GateHouse Media.[4]
Brian Burns, former publisher of The Tampa Tribune, joined The Ledger as publisher on January 25, 2017.[5]
According to nationwideadvertising.com, approximate circulation is 65,987; on Sunday, 81,366. In 2010 Alliance for Auditing approved a rule change allowing traditional print newspapers to combine their online readership to their print circulation. Actual circulation data for print delivery subscriptions is no longer reported.[6]
References
- Halifax Media purchases 16 newspapers Archived 2012-01-09 at the Wayback Machine
- New Media Announces Agreement to Acquire Halifax Media Group for $280.0 Million Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
- Ceballos, John (2014-01-21). "New Publisher Named for The Ledger". TheLedger.com. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
- Devore, Lenore (2016-10-12). "Ledger Media Group Publisher Kevin Drake leaving Polk County, returning to his roots". TheLedger.com.
- Devore, Lenore (2017-01-25). "Brian Burns named new publisher of the Ledger Media Group". TheLedger.com.
- Auditmedia.com Archived January 8, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Official website (Mobile)
- Today's The Ledger front page at the Newseum website