Its circulation at one time exceeded 200,000, but at the time of its closing, it had fallen below 80,000. Notable alumni of the newspaper included historian and biographer Douglas Southall Freeman, future television journalist Roger Mudd, conservative commentator James Kilpatrick, and editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly.

It was purchased in 1896 by Richmond newspaper publisher Joseph Bryan, who re-launched the paper on November 30 as The Evening Leader.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the News Leader editorial page, like that of the Times-Dispatch, took a strong segregationist stance.

Years after his tenure at the paper, Kilpatrick wrote that he had been an "ardent segregationist", reflecting his views in his News Leader editorials, but had since renounced segregation.

On the same day, the paper also printed a special commemorative magazine showing past front pages from the News Leader reporting on historic events from the 1890s to the 1990s, including the Hindenburg disaster, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the John F. Kennedy assassination, the Challenger disaster, and the First Persian Gulf War.

The magazine also featured letters to the editor by local readers, many of whom had read the News Leader for decades, who wrote about numerous personal experiences tied with the paper.