History
The paper was begun in 1889 by Albert M. Williamson as a business encyclical. Walter Warnock, county clerk, took over the publication in the 1890s and added news reporting. The paper has changed hands numerous times throughout the enduing years:
- 1914 - George Butler becomes editor and owner, transferred later that year to Albert Butler
- 1929 - Joseph Wilson of Clearwater, Florida buys the paper, and becomes an agrarian populist editor
- 1935 - acquired by the Scofield Publishing Company
- 1946 - purchased by a succession of Bradenton owners: N.A. Perry and J.R. Hough
- 1947 - bought by Col. George Johnson
- 1948 - sold to the Chicago Sun-Times editor Paul Ramsey
- 1959 - sold to the Bennett Hahn Company, and quickly thereafter to Frances and Carl Turner of Wisconsin
- 1962 - sold to a St. Petersburg group led by Herman Goldner
1963 - sold to David S. Arthurs
- 1980 - merged with Landmark Community Newspapers
1986 - expanded to a daily newspaper
- 2021 - sold to Paxton Media Group, its current owner
