''The Ledger'' 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, spor ...

serving

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay area, Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa, Florida, Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,6 ...

, and the Polk County area. 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 company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...

bought ''The Ledger'' in 1970 and owned it until 2012, when it sold its entire regional newspaper group to

Halifax Media Halifax Media Group was an American newspaper company owning more than 30 newspapers in five Southeastern U.S. States. It was founded on March 31, 2010 when a group of investors purchased '' The Daytona Beach News-Journal'' from the Davidson fam ...

. 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. 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. ...

'', 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.

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* * {{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