The Rocky Mount Telegram started publication as a morning newspaper in October 1910. A young Trinity College (Duke University) graduate named J.L. Horne had worked a few months on the city's established paper, The Daily Record, then decided he could start his own newspaper and do it better.

He was right. The Morning Telegram was a hit, according to a 1967 story on the history of the paper. It usually ran eight pages, full of local news and was delivered every day except Sunday. It was printed on a manually operated press where sheets of paper were hand fed through it one at a time while another pressman turned the rollers to print a page.

A year later, Josh Horne changed the paper to an afternoon publication, renaming it The Evening Telegram. It kept that name until 1995 when it became the current Rocky Mount Telegram. Horne bought out his competition in 1912 and weathered a number of other start-up attempts with names like the Argonaut, Rocky Mount Motor and Tar Heel Topics.

The Horne family owned the paper until 1972 when it was sold to Thomson Newspapers, a Canadian company. Cox Newspapers, a private, family-owned division of Cox Enterprises in Atlanta, Ga., purchased the Telegram in December 1996. The office moved from Howard Street to Tiffany Boulevard in April 1998.

The Telegram is now located at 1000 Hunter Hill Road, where it moved into the former YWCA building in January 2008. After several months of remodeling, the Telegram was proud to show off it's new stand-alone bulding during an open house event held in May 2008.

The Telegram has always concentrated on local reporting, a trait that earned the newspaper the award for General Excellence among all small dailies published in North Carolina. This commitment to local coverage will continue in this new electronic medium. We welcome your comments.