The Daily Local News is a daily newspaper based in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The newspaper covers Chester County news and provides limited coverage of neighboring Lancaster and Delaware counties. It covers local and national news, sports, culture, and entertainment. The paper published its first issue in West Chester on November 19, 1872.[1] The paper is owned by Digital First Media.[2]

Daily Local News
TypeDaily newspaper
Owner(s)Media News Group
Founder(s)William H. Hodgson
Founded1872
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersWest Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.
ISSN0163-3082
OCLC number2260094
Websitedailylocal.com

History

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Portrait of William Hall Hodgson in a 1904 publication

Daily Local News was founded by William H. Hodgson, son of John Hodgson, who published The Jeffersonian, a West Chester weekly affiliated with the Democratic Party, from 1855 to 1910. The Daily Local News began as a proceedings of the Chester County Teachers' Institute but rapidly morphed into Chester County's first daily newspaper, gaining 800 subscribers by June 1873 and becoming the highest circulating daily outside Philadelphia. Circulation rose to 14,741 subscribers in 1904. Hodgson remained publisher through 1909, when the Daily Local News Company formed to manage the newspaper.[3]

The Daily Local News continued to circulate briskly throughout the twentieth century, adding a Sunday edition in 1986. As of 2013, it had a daily circulation of more than 25,000 and a Sunday reach of more than 28,000.[4] The newspaper downsized in 2017, relocating its headquarters to its printing plant in Uwchlan and selling the West Chester building that had housed the paper since 1970.[5]

Humorist Dave Barry worked at the paper from 1971 to 1977, starting as a reporter and becoming news editor in 1975. He continued to write a weekly humor column until the mid-1980s. Barry met his second wife, Beth Lenox, while they were both reporters at the paper.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Daily Local News". Library of Congress: Chronicling America.
  2. ^ "Our Brands". MediaNews Group. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  3. ^ Heathcote, Charles William (1932). A History of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA: National Historical Association. pp. 166–169.
  4. ^ Chadwick, Kate (January 2014). "Publishing in West Chester, 1797–2014". The WC Press. West Chester, PA. p. 41. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Rellahan, Michael P. (May 15, 2021). "DLN 'Family' Reflect on Paper's Storied Past". Daily Local News. Archived from the original on July 27, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
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