[1] Sleight got his start as a newspaperman when he worked on the staff of the Suffolk County Gazette, a weekly newspaper published in Sag Harbor.

After suffering heavy business losses due to a fire, Sleight returned to New York and settled in Jamaica, where he established the Long Island Farmer.

[2] In the 1880s the paper came under the ownership of John C. Kennehan, a farmer and printer who had been in charge of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's Long Island Department.

In June 1926 the Long Island Press and Farmer was acquired by the Ridder Brothers, owners of New York’s German-language newspaper, the Staats-Zeitung.

With the arrival of the post-war boom in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk the Press' circulation continued to rise, reaching an all-time high of 445,000 daily and 422,000 Sunday in 1969.

On March 25, 1977 the Long Island Press ceased publication, citing increasing costs, decreased advertising revenue and declining circulation.

[9] The old Long Island Press building stood unoccupied on 168th Street until 2005, when it was demolished to make way for the Home Depot store that currently occupies the site.