The first Clear Lake newspaper was the Independent, established by Silas Noyes and John M. Brainard.
In April 1896, J.C. Davenport established another weekly paper here which he called the Clear Lake Reporter.
These two weekly newspapers combined under one ownership with B. Dayton Merriman, who owned the Reporter, buying the Mirror in 1951.
The team of Dave Presler and Michael Finnegan comprised the business which also owned other area newspapers.
Presler moved on from the company and focus was placed to ownership of the Clear Lake paper by Finnegan.