Laurel Leader

Laurel Leader

Front page of The Leader from November 26, 1897
Type	Weekly newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	Tribune Publishing
Editor	Melanie Dzwonchyk
Headquarters	501 North Calvert Street Baltimore, Maryland 21278 United States
Website	laurelleader.com

The Laurel Leader is a weekly newspaper which has been published continually since 1897, serving the greater Laurel, Maryland area, including Prince George's, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, and Howard Counties. The Leader is currently owned by Tribune Publishing, and operates as a subsidiary of The Baltimore Sun.

In 1897, James Curley founded The Leader in Laurel. Between 1897 and 1980, the ownership passed from Curley to G. Bowie McCeney to Gertrude Poe. In July 1980, Patuxent Publishing Company bought the newspaper. In September 1997, Patuxent Publishing was sold to The Baltimore Sun which was a subsidiary of Times Mirror. In June 2000, Tribune Publishing purchased Times Mirror and thus the Baltimore Sun, Patuxent Publishing, and the Laurel Leader.

In 1897 attorney James Curley founded The Leader, a weekly newspaper serving the approximately 2,600 residents of the city of Laurel, MD. It replaced the Free Quill, one of at least six newspapers which existed in the city in the second half of the nineteenth century. Curley created the Leader to "further his business interests and rally local Republicans," and the paper focused on national and sensational news rather than local news. Of the eight pages published each week, six consisted of national and international news while the only two were devoted to local news as well as advertisements. Curley was the paper's editor until 1938, when he gave up a half-interest in the paper as partial repayment of a mortgage debt, and sold the other half to the debt collector, G. Bowie McCeney.

After James Curley sold the paper to G. Bowie McCeney, McCeney served as editor for six months before appointing Gertrude Poe editor in 1939. Poe had previously worked in McCeney's office and had recently graduated from American University's law school when she was hired as the Leader's editor rather than joining McCeney's firm as an attorney. "He [McCeney] hands me a copy [of the Leader] with a grin and says, 'My career as an editor just ended. Yours is just beginning." Poe served as the Leader's editor until 1980, while McCeney remained the paper's publisher until 1978. In 1946 the paper's name was changed to The News Leader, after merging with the Bowie Register and The College Park News, two other papers owned by McCeney. From 1939 until the late 1950s, the Leader was a "one woman show," with Poe serving as advertising salesperson, graphic designer, copywriter, proofreader, and distributor as well as editor. Under Poe's leadership the focus of the paper shifted from national to local news, and increasingly catered to the local military population based at nearby Fort Meade. In addition, the paper made a strong effort to focus on positive news in the city. In 1992 Poe was quoted in an interview stating: "Maybe I was a little lopsided...I still think the media in general focuses too much on the bad news...There are so many good people. That exposure in the paper means so much to them and their stories can inspire others."