Their stated mission was to publish "a daily newspaper of the caliber to meet the needs of the people and to aid in the progress and prosperity of [the] growing city" of Lynn.

The newspaper remained in the control of the Hastings and Gamage families for five generations until the sale to Essex Media Group.

By 1996, the Daily Evening Item was the last family-owned newspaper on the North Shore, its chief competitor, The Salem Evening News, having been bought the year before by Essex County Newspapers, part of the Ottaway division of Dow Jones & Company, which already published four other dailies up the coast.

Item Publisher Brian Thayer told employees the paper was "fac[ing] bankruptcy or failure".

According to publisher Peter Hastings Gamage, the sale was required to meet the company's pension obligations.