one plant wasn't profitable, they merged the newspapers to form The Lakeland Ledger and Star-Telegram. In 1941, the name was shortened to The Lakeland Ledger. It was shortened further to The Ledger in 1967.

Several owners controlled the newspaper until 1970, when The New York Times Co. purchased it, newspapers in Ocala and Gainesville, and other media interests. It was sold again in January 2012, when Daytona Beach-based Halifax Media Group bought it and the other newspapers in The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group chain.

The newspaper went through many changes through the years, returning to a morning edition in April 1979. In 1998 it started its website, www.theledger.com – the same year it moved into its new building on Lime Street in Lakeland.

Two years after moving into the new building The Ledger added color to all of its section fronts, thanks to increased capacity on two printing presses. It now uses those presses to print products for a variety of outside sources, including The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Since then, the newspaper has purchased its competition to the east, the News Chief, which now falls under the Ledger Media Group umbrella along with print products such as Inside Polk magazine. It also owns a host of newspaper-related web sites, such as TimeoutPolk.com, Polkpreps.com, PoliticsinPolk.com, and its newest, Polkcollegesports.com.

The Ledger has a long history of award-winning journalism, most recently winning top state awards given by the Florida Society of News Editors and the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. It also has won several national awards in recent years for courtroom and breaking-news photography, and a series on the death of a middle-school student by a fellow student.