Today is The News-Herald’s 138th Birthday!

We thank you for your support in our first 138 years and look forward to the next 138 and beyond.

To say much has changed since April 18, 1879, is an understatement.

When the Willoughby Independent published its first four pages, readers in Northeast Ohio were as eager to learn about the literary social meeting set for that evening as they were about the sale of Monticello, and how to get cheap farms and free homes in Kansas.

Those early journalists had no worries about computer failures, satellite feeds, or competition from other print media let alone 24-hour television news channels and the Internet.

What they had was a desire to share news of their neighbors, be it that W.W. Sinclair was preparing to open a meat market in Perry or that a naval vessel had been sent to Samoa.

That desire hasn’t changed, even as technology has altered pretty much everything about the way a modernday newspaper is produced. For the past 138 years, the staff of The News-Herald has remained committed to bringing its readers all the news of the day from the latest on healthcare to the newest restaurant opening on Mentor Avenue to which high school softball player is having a standout season to whether the latest Hollywood blockbuster is worth your hard-earned dollars.

As publisher J.H. Merrill wrote in our inaugural edition,

“We shall endeavor to furnish a newspaper — a clean, neat, reliable and entertaining family journal, one in every way creditable and worthy the high character of the community in which it is published. We may fail in our purpose, but not without patient labor and persistent effort.”

Will residents of Mentor and Chardon and Saybrook and Euclid be unfolding a printed newspaper when we mark our 200th year or will they be downloading that day’s edition to a personal computer they wear on their wrist? Who can say for certain.

What is certain is that the dedicated professionals working here then will be focused on delivering the news of the day every day, plus a few surprises.

April 18, 1879

The News-Herald began with a four-page issue of the Willoughby Independent.

Elsewhere in the news ...

• Horsford’s self-raising bread preparation ... the healthful and nutritious baking powder was available • A district convention of the Young Men’s Christian Association was set to be held in Warren • The latest novelty in Perry was a canary bird that had the whooping cough • W.T. Clark dealer in drugs, groceries, paints, oils, perfumeries and tobacco advertised his wares