The News Journal is the main newspaper for Wilmington, Delaware, and the surrounding area. It is headquartered in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near New Castle, and is owned by Gannett. History The ancestry of the News Journal reflects the mergers of several newspapers. It is dated to Oct. 1, 1866 when Howard M. Jenkins and Wilmer Atkinson started the afternoon publication Daily Commercial. In 1877, that paper was absorbed into a rival, the Every Evening, founded by Georgetown native William T. Croasdale. The Evening Journal, later owned by the Du Pont family, was founded in 1888 as a competitor to the Every Evening. The two papers merged in 1933. Another predecessor to the News Journal was the Morning Herald, founded in 1876 by Philadelphia lawyer John O'Byrne. It later became the Daily Morning News, bought by Alfred I. Du Pont in 1911. For most of the 20th century, the Du Pont family owned these two Delaware newspapers, The Morning News and The Evening Journal. Ownership of both papers was consolidated in 1919 when feuding factions of the family reconciled, forming the News Journal Company. DuPont decided to sell The News Journal Company in 1978. Gannett won the bidding war, beating the Hearst Corporation and The Washington Post Company. Gannett paid $60 million for the two Delaware papers and merged them in 1989 to form one paper, The News Journal. In 2010, The News Journal Company became The News Journal Media Group in an effort to collectively identify their extensive product portfolio of print, digital, video and new media. Most recent circulation statements show The News Journal daily circulation at 26,550 (Issue Date: August 21, 2019) and Sunday circulation at 39,375 (Issue Date: August 25, 2019). Coverage area The News Journal covers New Castle County most in-depth, but also offers considerable coverage of the Delaware General Assembly and the Delaware beaches. The paper also offers limited coverage of northeast Maryland and southeast Pennsylvania, mostly by means of short news briefs. The paper publishes national and international articles from wire services. Sections Regular sections News Local & BusinessSportsLifeClassifiedsSpecial sectionsInnovate Delaware Health (Tuesdays)Crossroads (Thursdays) – contains news about schools and other local, human-interest features. High schools in Delaware each have pick a student to write a short report about the happenings at their school for Crossroads. In April 2007, The News Journal began reprinting articles from local high school newspapers in the