Ohio

The first newspaper published in the region north and west of the Ohio River was the Centinel of the North–Western Territory, which was written, typeset, and printed in Cincinnati by William Maxwell in 1793. The oldest newspaper in the state still published under its original name is the Scioto Gazette, which appeared in 1800. The oldest extant weekly, the Lebanon Western Star, began publication in 1807, and the first daily, the Cincinnati Commercial Register, appeared in 1826. By 1840 there were 145 newspapers in Ohio.

Two of the state's most influential newspapers, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Cincinnati Enquirer, were founded in 1841. In 2001, the Cleveland Plain Dealer was the twentieth-largest daily newspaper in the country. In 1878, Edward W. Scripps established the Cleveland Penny Press (later called the Press ), the first newspaper in what would become the extensive Scripps-Howard chain (though the Press folded in 1982). He later added to his newspaper empire the Cincinnati Post (1881) and the Columbus Citizen (1899), as well as papers in Akron, Toledo, and Youngstown.

In 2002, the state had 26 mornings dailies, 59 evening editions, and 42 Sunday editions. With a total of 84 daily newspapers, Ohio has the 3rd-largest number of daily papers in the country (following California and Texas). The following table lists leading Ohio newspapers with their approximate daily circulation in 2002:

Sun Newspapers, a weekly newspaper which produces 25 regional editions to serve 81 communities in the greater Cleveland and Akron areas, had a weekly circulation of 239,773. Crain's Cleveland Business has reported a readership of about 87,000 per week. Regional interest periodicals include Cleveland Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine, Ohio Magazine, and Northern Ohio Live.