Aiken Standard SC

The Aiken Standard is a daily newspaper published in Aiken, South Carolina, USA. It was established in 1867. It was called the Aiken Press.

The newspaper passed through the hands of several owners during the 1800s. One of the paper's most prominent early owners was James F. Byrnes. Byrnes, was a congressman, U.S. senator, South Carolina governor, U.S. Secretary of State, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and "Assistant" to the President of the United States. Under Byrnes and his partner, Alva Lorenz, the Journal and Review developed into Aiken's main newspaper. Byrnes and Lorenz operated the Journal and Review until 1912, when Lorenz bought out Byrnes' interest in the newspaper. In 1953, Lorenz sold the newspaper to Benjamin Josey King and his wife, Annie Howell King.

The Kings already owned a weekly newspaper called the Aiken Standard. The Kings merged the two papers to create the Aiken Standard and Review.

The Aiken Standard and Review operated in a small building on Richland Avenue, using Linotype machines and hot lead production methods that had been common in newspaper plants for many decades.

The Evening Post Industries Company of Charleston purchased the newspaper in 1968. Construction of a modern, 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m2) newspaper publishing plant, which featured a new offset press, was begun at once, and was completed, equipped and occupied within a year. The newspaper closed out the old operation with its issue of Friday, Sept. 26, 1969, and published its first issue from the new plant on Sept. 29, 1969.

By this time, the newspaper's name had been shortened, and it became the Aiken Standard of today. Samuel A. Cothran was the modern Aiken Standard's first publisher and editor. Under the leadership of Cothran, in 1985 a new, faster and larger press was installed, and almost simultaneously a Sunday morning edition was introduced. He remained publisher and editor until his retirement in 1989.

In April 1989, Scott B. Hunter became the new publisher of the Aiken Standard and on Aug. 19, 1989, the first Saturday morning edition was produced.

Hunter retired from the Aiken Standard in December 2013 at which time Ellen Priest assumed the role of president and publisher of the Aiken Standard and Aiken Communications.

In December 2023, Randy Mitchell was named publisher and digital sales director of the Aiken Standard and Aiken Communications.

Evening Post Industries separated in 2021 and Evening Post Publishing Newspaper Group now owns the Aiken Standard, along with several other daily and weekly newspapers across South Carolina including The Post and Courier in Charleston.