Charlotte Sun Herald

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The Charlotte Sun Herald is a newspaper published in Charlotte County, Florida.

The 40,000-circulation daily is owned by the Dunn-Rankin family under the corporate name of Sun Coast Media Group. Derek Dunn-Rankin is president. His son, David Dunn-Rankin, is publisher. David's wife, Debbie, is in charge of advertising.

The newspaper has several "zoned editions" covering coastal Charlotte County and inland DeSoto and Hardee counties. The approximately 30-person reporting staff covers the small communities of Punta Gorda, North Port, Englewood, Venice, Arcadia, Wauchula and Zolfo Springs.

The newspaper underwent a 40-person layoff in February 2008.

In addition to the newspaper, family enterprises include networked business communications and a monthly, regional-lifestyle magazine, Harbor Style. It was launched in May 2007.

According to local-area historian Lindsey Williams, today's newspaper has its roots in 1893, when Robert Kirby Seward published a two-page Punta Gorda Herald, printed on a foot-operated press. Seward sold the paper in 1901 to Adrian P. Jordan, historian Williams reports. In 1919, Jordan sold a half interest to Paul Garrett, who was editor and general manager until his death in 1936. Jordan's son, Adrian Crenshaw Jordan, stepped in to manage the business for another decade and a half.

The historian describes a succession of owners from the mid-20th century:

"A.C. Jordan sold the paper in 1951 to the first of a succession of publishers that included the "Fort Myers News-Press," "St. Petersburg Times, and Thomson Newspapers chain. A weekly free-circulation "Charlotte Sun" was established in 1979 by Derek Dunn-Rankin, president of Sun Coast Media. This paper expanded to twice weekly, thrice weekly and finally to daily. The "Sun" and Herald merged under Dunn-Rankin's leadership on Jan. l, 1979. In preparation to going to a morning daily, the publisher built a modern newspaper plant on Harborview Road at Charlotte Harbor Town. A giant, Goss Urbanite newspaper press and associated equipment was installed. It can spew out 30,000 hundred-page papers an hour."^[1]

More recently, the current publishers acquired The Arcadian, the Lake Placid Journal and several small weeklies in inland southwest Florida, which share content with the coastal editions. In December 2006, the parent group bought three Frisbie-family owned newspapers in Polk County: The Polk County Democrat, based in Bartow and founded in 1931 by the great-grandfather of the current owner, S.L. Frisbie IV. The paper publishes twice a week. The second paper is the twice weekly Fort Meade Leader, a 1969 spin-off of the Democrat, and the once-a-week Lake Wales News, an 1998 Frisbie acquistion. The deal also included Polk County Times, "an 11,000 circulation monthly targeted at county government and public schools," according to a Dec. 15, 2007 news report by Bob Fliss, Charlotte-Sun Business News Editor.