Posted: April 1, 2008: 10:03 am
The Tampa Bay Business Journal is conducting an online poll regarding Bay area opinions on the CSX project. While not scientific it’s results will be reported in some fashion. It is important that the East Polk business community weigh in on this important economic development opportunity. You can read the Journal’s brief overview and vote/comment here:
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Posted: March 4, 2008: 9:33 am
A new day for the News Chief
The Ledger today announced the acquisition of the Winter Haven-based News Chief daily newspaper.
Nelson Kirkland, Advertising Director for The Ledger was named publisher. The purchase does not include the News Chief’s current building. The sale is expected to close within a week and the News Chief’s news operation will relocate to the current Ledger East Polk building which will be renamed for the News Chief. The production of the paper will be done in The Ledger’s Lakeland plant.
Further details are available here.
M. M.”Dad” Lee (left) founder of the News Chief.
History of the News Chief
The News Chief in Winter Haven, Fla., traces its beginnings to Sept. 28, 1911, when the first edition of the weekly Florida Chief was published by its founder, M.M. “Dad” Lee.
Everything originally was handset, but, within four years, Lee had moved the newspaper to larger quarters and eventually acquired three linotype machines. During its 10th anniversary in September of 1921, the newspaper went to twice-a-week publication, and three years later went to five days a week, Mondays through Fridays.
Lee continued the newspaper through two severe hurricanes (1926 and 1933), a fire (1930) and the Great Depression before selling the newspaper in January 1948 to W.W. Galvin of Ohio.
Galvin immediately acquired a weekly, The Winter Haven News, and combined it with the Florida Chief into the News Chief.
The newspaper passed to other owners who also acquired the weekly Auburndale Star. Then disaster struck on Nov. 13, 1954, with a major fire that destroyed the building and severely damaged most of the equipment.
A four-page Sunday edition was printed at The Winter Haven Herald to keep intact the record of not missing a scheduled publication day.
In March of 1964, the News Chief became one of the early leaders in Florida journalism in converting to offset printing.
In December of 1972, the News Chief moved from its downtown plant to new quarters.
The News Chief added to its holdings with the purchase of the Winter Haven Shopping Guide in 1978.
In 1995, the News Chief and its other holdings became part of Morris Communications Co. with the Morris purchase of the Stauffer Communications chain of publications. The News Chief had been a Stauffer publication since April 1990, when the newspaper was purchased from Multimedia Inc.
In late 2007, the News Chief and its other holdings, including the Polk Shopper, became part of GateHouse Media Inc. which placed the paper on the market and the New York Times made the purchase.
| See other posts filed in: Commercial Developments, News Media
The Official Website of the Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce
