Fernandina News-Record Archive

The Fernandina Beach News-Leader bills itself as “Florida’s oldest weekly newspaper.” It traces its lineage back to the Fernandina News, a semiweekly and sometimes triweekly paper that began publication in the 1890s and before that to Fernandina’s Florida Mirror . Fernandina Beach, as Fernandina is known today, sits along the northeastern boundary of Florida and Georgia on Amelia Island, located on the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. By the turn of the 20th century, Fernandina had been transformed from a garrison town into the first stop for northern tourists in Florida. The local economy was bolstered during the Spanish-American War, and for several years afterward Fernandina retained its gateway status. The town’s star began to fade with the reconstruction of Jacksonville in the wake of the Great Fire of 1901 and the subsequent opening of Jacksonville’s port in the deep waters of the St. Johns River.

Between 1894 and 1896, the Fernandina News was edited by S.W. Manucy, who also served as tax assessor for Nassau County. Until 1910, the paper was simply called the News. In that year, it merged with the Fernandina Record to become the Fernandina News-Record, which in turn lasted until 1920 when another merger yielded the Nassau County Leader and Fernandina News-Record. This long title was shortened in 1925 to the Nassau County Leader. In 1939, the paper was renamed the Fernandina News.