The August 29, 2013 front page of The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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Type | Daily newspaper |
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Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | New Media Investment Group |
Publisher | Bill Offill |
Editor | Pat Rice |
Founded | 1883 |
Headquarters | 901 Sixth Street Daytona Beach, Florida 32117 U.S. |
Circulation | 61,000 Daily 83,000 Sunday |
ISSN | 1525-2493 |
Website | news-journalonline.com |
The Daytona Beach News-Journal is a Florida daily newspaper serving Volusia and Flagler counties.
It grew from the Halifax Journal which was started in 1883. The Davidson family purchased the newspaper in 1928 and retained control until bankruptcy in 2009. In 1986, The Morning Journal and Evening News merged into one morning newspaper. The newspaper began its online services in 1994.
Daytona's early settlers decided that a newspaper would be important for the development of the town. A group of citizens raised money to persuade Florian A. Mann to move his printing press from Ohio to Daytona and start a new publication. Prior to publication of the first issue, 86 subscribers were signed up, all paid in advance. Advertisers also paid in advance for the first three months.
The first issue was scheduled for release on February 1, 1883; however, a schooner bringing the blank paper to Florida shipwrecked off the coast of the Carolinas, with the loss of all hands and cargo. This delayed publication of the first issue until Mann decided to buy a bolt of cotton cloth from Laurence Thompson's dry goods store to use as a substitute.
The first issue of the Halifax Journal was printed and published on the cotton cloth, dated February 15, 1883. The premier issue contained local news, as well as Mann's editorial of praise and hope for the Halifax area. The Halifax Journal continued as a weekly publication until Mann sold the newspaper in 1889 to J.M. Jolley. In 1908, Jolley died and the newspaper was bought by Galen Seaman. After Seaman's death, the paper was bought by W.C. Carter of the Halifax Printing Company, which operated a printing shop connected with the Halifax Journal.
After selling the Halifax Journal, Mann moved to Ormond and started the Ormond Gazette. He later sold this paper to L. Moreton Murray and returned to Daytona, to start the Daytona News. Thomas E. Fitzgerald bought the Daytona News in 1900 and the Ormond Gazette in 1903. Fitzgerald consolidated the two papers and on December 1, 1903, published the first issue of The Daytona Daily News.
Hugh Sparkman started a stock company which bought the Halifax Journal and turned it into a daily publication. In 1926, the stock company bought The Daytona Daily News from Fitzgerald. The stock company ceased publication of The Morning Journal, but continued The Evening News and The Sunday News-Journal.