The Item, formerly known as The Sumter Daily Item and The Daily Item, is an independent morning newspaper published in Sumter, South Carolina, five days a week (Tuesday to Friday), with a "Weekend Edition" delivered on Saturday mornings, by Osteen Publishing Company.

[1] The paper, then called The Sumter Daily Item, was first published on October 15, 1894, by Hubert Graham Osteen.

[4] Osteen served as the paper's editor and publisher until his retirement in 1946.

The paper covers Sumter, Lee and Clarendon counties, with a dedicated bureau located in Manning which publishes a weekly section, "The Clarendon Sun," each Tuesday.

Lakeside, magazine covering the Sumter, Clarendon, Orangeburg, Berkeley and Calhoun County areas of Lake Marion is also published six times a year.