The Register-Guard is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River valley, and surrounding areas. it has a circulation of around 43,000 Monday through Friday, around 47,000 on Saturday, and a little under 50,000 on Sunday. The newspaper has been owned by The Gannett Company since Gannett's 2019 merger with GateHouse Media. It had been sold to GateHouse in 2018. From 1927 to 2018, it was owned by the Baker family of Eugene, and members of the family served as both editor and publisher for nearly all of that time period. It is Oregon's second-largest daily newspaper and, until its 2018 sale to GateHouse, was one of the few medium-sized family newspapers left in the United States. History of The Guard Establishment The Guard was launched in 1867 in Eugene City on Saturday, June 1, by JohnB. Alexander, and has been continuously published since October 24. The paper began as a weekly organ expressing allegiance to the states' rights-oriented Democratic Party and it joined an existing Republican paper in the field, the Oregon State Journal, published by HarrisonR. Kincaid. Founding publisher Alexander was born about 1830 and came to Oregon from Illinois as a pioneer in 1852. Alexander initially worked as a farmer, supplementing his income as a surveyor and local justice of the peace before learning the printing trade working for the town's earlier pro-Southern newspapers. Although his own venture as a publisher was short and unprofitable, Alexander unwittingly was the scion of a local newspaper dynasty in Oregon, with two of his sons later themselves publishing The Guard (following the tenure of several intermediate owners), while a grandson, GeorgeL. Alexander, would one day edit another Oregon paper, the Lebanon Express. Alexander and his paper vocally supported the old governing class of the former Confederate States of America and were rabid in their opposition to the policies of the Reconstruction era imposed upon the South by the Northern-based Republican Party. Such views were out of step with the majority of Oregonians, however, with the Republicans coming to dominate Oregon politics during the last quarter of the 19th century. Alexander was forced to liquidate his stake in his money-losing newspaper in 1868. Ownership