The Headlight, launched in 1888, is thought to have been Tillamook County's first newspaper.[3]
The Tillamook Advocate was founded in 1894, and used the plant previously owned by the Western Watchtower, a short-lived newspaper launched in political opposition to the Headlight in the late 1880s. After being purchased by R. M. Watson in 1895, the Advocate was renamed the Herald, and changed hands many times in the following years.[4]
The Headlight and the Herald merged in 1934 to form the Headlight-Herald.[5][6] In 1960, Elsie W. DeCook sold the paper to E.C. McKinney and her son Vern McKinney (owners of The Hillsboro Argus) and Philip N. Bladine (owner of the McMinnville Telephone-Register).[7] The Headlight-Herald was sold in 1973 to Dave Juenke, Walter Taylor and Lee Irwin.[8] In 1980, Juenke sold the paper to Scripps-Ifft Newspapers Inc.[9][10]The company sold the newspaper to Swift-Pioneer Publishing Co. in 1983.[11] In April 2007, the newspaper was purchased by Country Media, Inc., along with The News Guard in Lincoln City. Those two papers had previously been owned by Oregon Coast Newspapers LLC since February 2003.[12]
