The News Leader

The News Leader

The July 27, 2005 front page of
The News Leader
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Gannett Company
Publisher Roger Watson
Editor David Fritz
Founded 1904 (with heritage dating to 1890)
Headquarters 11 North Central Avenue
Staunton, Virginia 24401
 United States
Circulation 18,339 Morning
21,186 Sunday[1]
Website newsleader.com

The News Leader is a daily newspaper owned by Gannett Company, serving Staunton, Virginia and the surrounding areas. The paper was founded in 1904 by Brig. Gen. Hierome L. Opie as The Evening Leader.[2]

While it traces its founding to Opie in 1904, the paper had a predecessor, The Daily News, that was founded in 1890.[2] Opie worked as a reporter for The Daily News, which was a morning paper, before starting The Evening Leader. In 1919 Opie bought The Daily News and combined it with The Morning Leader, a paper he had started to compete directly with The News.

The combined paper was called The Staunton News-Leader.[2] When the papers were combined, the new edition adopted the volume number of The Daily News, so the current edition's volume number goes back further than the 1904 founding date. In the 1960s the Opie family combined The Staunton News-Leader with The Evening Leader and Staunton was left with only one daily newspaper, The Daily News Leader. "Daily" was dropped from the name in 2002.

The Opies sold the paper in 1979 to Multimedia Inc., which was purchased by Gannett Co. in 1995. The newspaper launched its online edition in 2001.

References

  1. "About Gannett: The Daily News Leader". Gannett Co., Inc. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Leader predecessor was Staunton's first daily". Retrieved 2008-01-31.

External links