The Ledger

The Ledger is a daily newspaper serving Lakeland, Florida, and the Polk County area.

For other uses, see Ledger (disambiguation).
The Ledger
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Gannett
Publishernone
EditorLeon Tucker
FoundedAugust 22, 1924
HeadquartersLakeland, Florida
Circulation16,835[1]
ISSN0163-0288
OCLC number187953892
WebsiteTheLedger.com

History

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.[2] In 2015, Halifax was acquired by New Media Investment Group.[3]

Jerome Ferson became publisher of the newspaper on July 30, 2007. Kevin Drake became publisher of the newspaper on January 21, 2014.[4] 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.[5]

Brian Burns, former publisher of The Tampa Tribune, joined The Ledger as publisher on January 25, 2017.[6] He departed the newspaper July 25, 2019.[7] No new publisher had been named as of October 2021.

References
  1. "Member Directory". Florida Press Association. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
  2. Halifax Media purchases 16 newspapers Archived January 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. New Media Announces Agreement to Acquire Halifax Media Group for $280.0 Million Archived March 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Ceballos, John (January 21, 2014). "New Publisher Named for The Ledger". The Ledger. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  5. Devore, Lenore (October 12, 2016). "Ledger Media Group Publisher Kevin Drake leaving Polk County, returning to his roots". The Ledger.
  6. Devore, Lenore (January 25, 2017). "Brian Burns named new publisher of the Ledger Media Group". The Ledger.
  7. Bouffard, Kevin (July 15, 2019). "Publisher Brian Burns leaving Ledger Media Group". The Ledger.
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