| The Item | |
| Type: | Daily newspaper |
| Format: | Broadsheet Online |
| Foundation: | Oct. 15, 1894 |
| Owners: | Osteen Publishing Co. |
| Publisher: | Vince Johnson |
| Editor: | Vince Johnson (editor) |
| Language: | English |
| Circulation: | approximately 20,000[1] |
| Headquarters: | 36 W Liberty St., Sumter, SC, United States |
The Item, formerly known as The Sumter Daily Item and The Daily Item, is an independent morning newspaper published in Sumter, South Carolina, five days a week (Tuesday to Friday), with a "Weekend Edition" delivered on Saturday mornings, by Osteen Publishing Company. It has a circulation of approximately 20,000.
The paper, then called The Sumter Daily Item, was first published on October 15, 1894, by Hubert Graham Osteen. It previously had been operated as The Watchman and Southron (a merger of Sumter Watchman and True Southron). It was South Carolina's first small-town newspaper.[2] Osteen served as the paper's editor and publisher until his retirement in 1946.
In 2008, the paper changed its Monday edition to a tabloid format before abandoning the Monday edition altogether. However, the paper's website is updated each Monday, with news and obituaries.
The paper covers Sumter, Lee and Clarendon counties, with a dedicated bureau located in Manning which publishes a weekly section, "The Clarendon Sun," each Tuesday. Lakeside, magazine covering the Sumter, Clarendon, Orangeburg, Berkeley and Calhoun County areas of Lake Marion is also published six times a year.
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