''The Ledger'' is a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

serving

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. Located along Interstate 4, I-4 east of Tampa and southwest of Orlando, Florida, Orlando, it is the List of municipalities in Florida, most populous city in Polk County. As of the 2020 ...

, and the Polk County area.

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 The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes ''The New York Times'' and its associated publications such as ''The New York Times International Edition'' and other media properties. The New York Times Company's ...

bought ''The Ledger'' in 1970 and owned it until 2012, when it sold its entire regional newspaper group to Halifax Media. In 2015, Halifax was acquired by New Media Investment Group. Jerome Ferson became publisher of the newspaper on July 30, 2007. Kevin Drake became publisher of the newspaper on January 21, 2014. 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 GateHouse Media Inc. was an American publisher of locally based print and digital media. It published 144 daily newspapers, 684 community publications, and over 569 local-market websites in 38 states. Its parent company, New Media Investment Group ...

. Brian Burns, former publisher of ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. P ...

'', joined ''The Ledger'' as publisher on January 25, 2017. He departed the newspaper July 25, 2019. No new publisher had been named as of October 2021. Louis M. "Skip" Perez has been The Ledger's longest-serving chief news executive, holding the position of Executive Edito
from 1981 to 2011

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ledger, The Lakeland, Florida Newspapers published in Florida Daily newspapers published in the United States 1924 establishments in Florida Newspapers established in 1924 Gannett publications