The Ledger is a daily newspaper serving Lakeland, Florida, and the Polk County area.

In 1927, it bought its main competitor, the morning Lakeland Star-Telegram.

In 1941, Star-Telegram was dropped from the masthead, and in 1967 the name was shortened to simply The Ledger.

The New York Times Company bought The Ledger in 1970 and owned it until 2012, when it sold its entire regional newspaper group to Halifax Media.

[4] In October 2016, Drake left The Ledger to return to his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, to work as a group publisher for GateHouse Media.