The Lufkin Daily News began by 1907, when the Nacogdoches Sentinel noted that Lufkin had an afternoon daily paper called The News. Charles L. Schless of Chicago started the paper and operated it alone for its first two years before selling part ownership to shareholders, and it was then sold to George Watford in 1913. The News was published twice weekly until 1915, when Watford, Binion, and Kurth purchased a Mergenthaler linotype machine that mechanized typesetting, sped production, and enabled the newspaper to publish daily thereafter. Its owners emphasized innovative technology, helping it break publishing records and support local industry. On January 14, 1940, The News issued a record-setting 288-page edition marking the completion of Southland Paper Mills Inc., printed on the mill's first 1,445-pound roll of white paper from the first run of commercially produced southern pine newsprint in the world. In 1959, The News moved to its current facility a short walk from its original location on Cotton Square, computerized its production process in 1974, and received the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for community service in 1977. For more than a century, it has provided Lufkin and the surrounding area with local news and remained an important community resource.