The newspaper was formed by the merger of the previously separate morning News and afternoon Sentinel on April 25, 2009.

[2] Prior to the merge, the Sentinel had published continuously for 134 years.

[2] The first Parkersburg News, owned by secessionist Charles Rhoads, began publication before the Civil War.

In May 1861, the office was destroyed by a crowd of pro-Union men, and Rhoads was driven out of town.

[3] The Parkersburg Sentinel was founded in 1875 by Robert Hornor and acquired by Herschel Ogden in 1912.