''The Morning News'' is a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written 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 politics, business, sports a ...

with a circulation of about 35,000, based in

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

. It is owned by

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

. It was founded as the ''Farmers' Friend'' in 1887, and was part of several mergers and name changes. In its early history, it was aligned with the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. The first edition of the newspaper as the ''Weekly News and Review'', appeared on March 18, 1922. Its immediate predecessor was the ''Florence News and Review'', and its name was later changed to the ''Morning News Review''. In February 1928, it purchased the ''Florence Daily Times'' and the name was changed to the ''Florence Morning News''. In 1945, it became the ''Florence Morning News''. In 1956, then-editor Jack O'Dowd, the son of the newspaper's publisher, enraged the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

by supporting the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

's ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' desegregation decision and he was run out of town, going to a job with the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

''. The only other South Carolina newspaper that took the progressive stance in the 1950s and 1960s was the ''

Greenwood Index Journal Green wood is unseasoned wood. Greenwood or Green wood may also refer to: People * Greenwood (surname) Settlements Australia * Greenwood, Queensland, a locality in the Toowoomba Region * Greenwood, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth C ...

''. O'Dowd was replaced by James A. Rogers, who while also somewhat progressive editorially, took a less confrontational posture. Rogers wrote several books on the region and was instrumental in the creation of Francis Marion College in 1970, now

Francis Marion University Francis Marion University is a public university near Florence, South Carolina. It is named in honor of American Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Marion. History The university dates back to 1957, when the University of South Caro ...

. He retired as editor in 1975. The ''Florence Morning News'' was purchased by Thomson Newspapers, later

The Thomson Corporation The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL) and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form ...

in December 1981. Thomson worked to expand the newspaper from a Florence-focused newspaper to more regional coverage. It was extensively redesigned in 1992, and again in 1998, to emphasize coverage of the nine-county

Pee Dee The Pee Dee is a region in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of South Carolina. It lies along the lower watershed of the Pee Dee River, which was named after the Pee Dee, a Native American tribe that historically inhabited the region. His ...

region of South Carolina. The newspaper was sold to

Media General Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...

in 2000, and to

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

in 2012. The ''Morning News'' serves as the regional hub for four weekly newspaper publications also owned by Lee Enterprises: ''The Hartsville Messenger'', ''The Lake City News and Post'', ''The Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise'', and ''The (Hemingway) Weekly Observer''. The ''Morning News'' operates online through scnow.com. That website houses not only the ''Morning News'', but also the ''Hartsville Messenger'', ''Weekly Observer'', ''The Lake City News and Post'', and the ''Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise''. Until Media General sold its entire newspaper division to Berkshire Hathaway, it also housed

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate,

WBTW WBTW (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Florence, South Carolina, United States, serving the Pee Dee and Grand Strand regions of South Carolina as an affiliate of CBS. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains st ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morning News, The 1922 establishments in South Carolina Daily newspapers published in the United States Democratic newspapers (United States) Newspapers published in South Carolina Florence, South Carolina Lee Enterprises publications Publications established in 1922