The Advocate was founded by W.A. Browne, Sr. as an eight-page weekly newspaper in May 1883.[2] Browne converted it to daily publication around January 1893, as the Daily Advocate.[3]
Brown, a Cincinnati-based family business, declared bankruptcy and was reconstituted as Ohio Community Media in 2010.[5] The company, including the Daily Advocate, was purchased for an undisclosed sum in 2011 by Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Management.[6]
In 2012 Versa merged Ohio Community Media, the former Freedom papers it had acquired, Impressions Media, and Heartland Publications into a new company, Civitas Media.[7] Civitas Media sold its Ohio papers to AIM Media Midwest in 2017.[8] In 2019, AIM Media Midwest purchased the Greenville Earlybird, a Sunday only free-distribution newspaper in the area. The consolidation of the two publications now offers its advertising customers publishing capabilities Tuesdays through Fridays and Sundays each week.