| Lincoln County Leader | |
| Type: | Weekly newspaper |
| Owner: | Country Media, Inc. |
| Publisher: | Frank Perea |
| Editor: | Joe Warren |
| Maneditor: | Steve Card |
| Foundation: | January 10, 2024 |
| Language: | English |
| Headquarters: | 831 NE Avery Street |
| Publishing City: | Newport, Oregon |
| Publishing Country: | United States |
| Website: | |
The Lincoln County Leader is a weekly newspaper based in Newport, Oregon, United States. It was formed in January 2024 by the merger of the Newport News-Times and Lincoln City News Guard, both published by Country Media, Inc. The newspaper takes the name of an earlier publication that existed from 1893 to 1987.[1] The Leader is the newspaper of record for Lincoln County.
At least 20 different newspapers have been published in the Lincoln County area.[2] The county's first newspaper was the Yaquina Post, established in 1882 and published in Yaquina City by Collins Van Cleve. In 1889, Van Cleve was also publishing the Scio Press out of Yaquina City. One of the papers, founded in 1886, was called the Newport News, but it was short-lived.[3]
Various newspapers started and closed until 1893, when, in the same year Lincoln County was officially established from part of Benton County, two newspapers were started: the Yaquina Bay News out of Newport, and the Lincoln County Leader out of Toledo. The Yaquina Bay News became known as the Newport News by the 1960s, after many ownership and name changes and mergers. At this time the Newport News bought out the Lincoln County Times of Waldport, the two names were combined to form the Newport News-Times. The News-Times bought the Lincoln County Leader about a year later.
The Beach Resort News in Delake started in 1930 and the Lincoln Coast Guard in Nelscott started in 1937. The two merged in 1939 to form the North Lincoln News Guard. In 1965, the name was changed to the Lincoln City News Guard.[4] Pioneer News Group purchased the News Guard in 1980.[5] The paper was sold to Oregon Coast Newspapers LLC in February 2003, and was sold again to Country Media, Inc. in April 2007.[6]
At some point the News-Times was acquired by Lee Enterprises, who sold it in 2007 to News Media Corporation.[7] In 2023, the Newport News-Times was sold to Country Media, Inc.[8] In January 2024, Country Media merged the Newport News-Times and Lincoln City News Guard into a single newspaper named after the Lincoln County Leader, which had published for 94 years from 1893 to 1987.[9] The plan was first announced in the previous October.[10]