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.
No wonder most of the Ledger brass was at Richard’s Coffee this morning in Winter Haven :-)
Congratulations, Nelson! You are the perfect captain to lead the NewsChief ship! Sails Ahoy, Mate!
Excellent outcome to a sensitive situation for Winter Haven: The News Chief survives and a publisher is named that not only lives in Winter Haven, but breathes Winter Haven.
Congratulations, Nelson, this opportunity for you is much deserved.
Congratulations Nelson, it’s great to have you back in Winter Haven and as The News Chief’s Publisher.. It’s also nice to see The Ledger making a continued commitment to the East Polk readers.
Congrats Nelson, you deserve this position. Please keep up the execellent reporting on High School sports. Those of us that like and follow High School athletics really look forward to reading the Chief’s sports page each day..
Long time subscriber to the News Chief.
I agree with you Brad, keep the local high school sports a high priority.
I think this is a great outcome. We keep our hometown paper and they are bringing in a guy that knows how to get the job done right. We look forward to you being back in town Nelson !! Congrats.
Yes it is good for some. Lets not forget that with this purchase comes mass layoffs. With the exception of a select few, all of The News Chiefs employees are now left without a job. Good luck to all of you that put it many many years working at The News Chief and are now left with nothing.
Well said, Paul. Two thirds of the employees will soon be out of work. I’ll be surprised if the content/slant of the “new” News Chief remains the same as the newspaper we have read for years. And how secure are the employees who were able to transfer? Having been through two such job closures in my career, as have many people, I believe we can all empathize with every member of the staff. Success and happiness to all of you!
It was bound to happen, but it’s a sad day, too. The News Chief was one helluva newspaper in its heyday, and received many national accolades including the Sigma Delta Chi Bronze Medallion in Public Service and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel.
Newspapers are dying because of corporate greed and their dedication to Wall Street, not Main Street.
I remember fondly my days as executive editor at The News Chief and some of the most talented, dedicated journalists I have ever had the pleasure to work with.
Anyone notice the polkonline.com website was not updated today?
I’m certain the past week was spent arranging the transfer of the offices to the new location and working out the printing logistics. Depending on where polkonline is maintained, that could take longer to update. To be fair we need to give them a little time.
Thank you Shelley for bringing up the point about the “other” employees. I am one of the employees that did not get to keep thier job. Actually the numbers were “keep job = 23, unemployment = 75″. I worked at the News Chief for 8 years and was given 4 days notice that I wont have a job. The newspaper article that was printed stated that we were forming a partnership, but it was more like a hostile takeover. I understand that its all business and I wish all of my friends that went to the Ledger good luck.
I see Nelson Kirkland has felt the wrath of the real Ledger. I did work for the Ledger and their constant layoffs are the reason I left and went to The News Chief. Good luck Nelson.