The sun sets on the Banner

Today’s edition — more than a century after the Dorchester Banner’s launch in Cambridge — will be the last.

One must go back to September 1897 to its start as the Daily Banner — the first daily newspaper on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the only daily ever to be based in the city.

Armistead R. Michie, a publisher from Virginia, saw opportunity in Cambridge, after seeing the skipjacks and other workboats on the Choptank River. At the time, there were about a million oysters brought into the city annually.

The skipjack has maintained a place in the Banner’s front-page flag for years.
Over the decades, ownership of the paper changed multiple times, with each solidifying its reputation as a small but vibrant community newspaper.

The legacy, perhaps, will be in the thousands of newspaper clippings — obituaries tucked away in family Bibles and accomplishments saved in scrapbooks. Chances are that if you lived in Dorchester, your name was in the Banner at some point.

The decision to close was a difficult one, of course.

With advertising and subscriptions diminished, our company, Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA, opted to move its resources in Maryland to our growing weekly newspapers, the Salisbury Independent and the Somerset County Times.
News of interest to Dorchester residents, particularly stories about Delmarva and statewide issues, will continue to be available at BaytoBayNews.com and the Daily State News.

We hope you’ll continue to follow us and continue to participate in the discussion of issues facing Delmarva.

To our readers, we close this chapter with great gratitude for our 128 years together.

— Dorchester Banner staff