The Advocate was founded by W.A. Browne, Sr. as an eight-page
weekly newspaper in May 1883. Browne sold the paper to
The Thomson Corporation, a
Canadian publisher, which later sold it to
Brown Publishing Company in 1996. Brown, a
Cincinnati-based family business, declared bankruptcy and was reconstituted as
Ohio Community Media in 2010. The company, including the
Daily Advocate, was purchased for an undisclosed sum in 2011 by
Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Management. In 2012 Versa merged Ohio Community Media, the former
Freedom papers it had acquired,
Impressions Media, and
Heartland Publications into a new company,
Civitas Media. Civitas Media sold its Ohio papers to AIM Media Midwest in 2017. In 2019, AIM Media Midwest purchased the Greenville Earlybird, a Sunday only free-distribution newspaper in the area. The consolidation of the two publications now offers its advertising customers publishing capabilities Tuesdays through Fridays and Sundays each week. == References ==