The Statesman Journal is the major daily newspaper published in Salem, Oregon, United States.

[2] It is owned, along with the neighboring Stayton Mail and Silverton Appeal Tribune, by the national Gannett Company.

The first issue was dated March 28, 1851, printed on a hand press in Oregon City, the provincial capital from 1848 to 1851.

[5] Thurston died on April 9 of that year while returning from the nation's capital to the Territory, and Bush then assumed ownership of the paper.

[4] It ceased publication in 1866, but resumed in 1869 under the guidance of editor Samuel Asahel Clarke and titled The Statesman and Unionist.

[6] For 18 months in 1883–84, 50% of the newspaper was owned by William H. Byars, the former publisher of the Roseburg Plaindealer (1873–83) who was nominated as State Printer in late 1882 and elected in 1883.

[6] Sprague ran for Oregon Governor in 1938, and held that post for one term, leaving the paper in the hands of editor Ralph Curtis and business manager Wendell Wilmarth.

When he lost his re-election bid and returned to the paper's helm in 1953, he worked to make it more directly competitive with the city's afternoon newspaper, the Capital-Journal.

Around 1918, George Putnam purchased the Capital Journal and served as editor for 30 years before selling to Bernard Mainwaring in 1953.

[12] The newspaper primarily covers news in the Salem-Keizer metropolitan area in the middle section of the Willamette Valley.