The Delaware Gazette had been owned by one family longer than any other American daily newspaper when it was sold to Brown Publishing Company of Cincinnati, OH in June, 2004.

Brown Publishing was founded in 1920 and has grown to be one of the largest independent family-owned newspaper publishing companies in Ohio. Originally founded with one weekly newspaper, the Company has expanded to publish 15 daily newspapers, 15 paid weekly newspapers, 14 Total Market Coverage ("TMC") newspapers, and 15 TMC shoppers. On a weekly basis, Brown products now reach over 1.6 million people and 680,000 households in 24 counties in Ohio. The Company's newspapers are located in the south and west of the state, primarily in rural and suburban markets.

Founded as a weekly in 1818, The Gazette operated under several names -- Olentangy Gazette, Ohio Gazette, and Delaware Gazette -- in its earliest years. Abram Thomson became co-owner in 1834 and bought out his partner in 1836. By the time Abram turned control of The Gazette over to his son, Henry Clay Thomson, in 1897, the Thomson family already had operated the newspaper for 63 years. Henry Clay added 29 years before giving control to his son, Walter Dunlap Thomson, in 1926. "W.D.," as he was known, presided for 42 years before yielding to the fourth-generation publisher, Henry Clay "Hank" Thomson II, in 1968. "Hank" Thomson served as publisher until his death in 1994. He was succeeded by W.D. "Tom" Thomson II, the fifth-generation publisher.

The Gazette marked its 175th anniversary in April 1993. President Clinton, Governor George Voinovich, U.S. Sen. John Glenn, and U.S. Rep. John Kasich sent congratulatory letters. State Sen. Dick Schafrath sponsored an Ohio Senate resolution and State Rep. Joan Lawrence sponsored an Ohio House of Representatives resolution honoring The Delaware Gazette. Delaware Mayor Michael Shade declared April 18 through May 18, 1993 "Delaware Gazette Month."

Abram Thomson, a Maryland native who learned the newspaper business in New York City, established a tradition for adjusting to change that has marked The Gazette since. He worked under Horace Greeley, "The Father of Modern American Journalism," in the 1830s when Greeley was helping lead the mass-circulation newspaper movement.

Emergence of The Gazette over at least 16 other Delaware newspapers is probably attributable in part to what the 20-year-old Thomson had learned working with Greeley, whose New York Tribune became the dominant American newspaper of the 1850s and 1860s. The two had much in common. Both left the Whig Party to join the new Republican Party and both strongly supported Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860. Lincoln considered Greeley his favorite newspaper editor during the Civil War, and he appointed Thomson Delaware postmaster in 1861 and again in 1865. The Greeley-Thomson friendship was such that Greeley stayed overnight with the Thomson's in Delaware when he traveled west.

Abram Thomson's achievements were recognized with his election to the Ohio State University School of Journalism Hall of Fame in 1938. (In its first seven decades, the Hall of Fame has honored posthumously only 62 Ohio journalists.)

As the era of rigid partisanship gave way to political objectivity and as news coverage broadened, Abram Thomson moved The Gazette forward accordingly. He and his descendants kept up with mechanical changes. In the 1890s The Gazette installed one of the first Linotype machines in Ohio as the era of hand-set type began to fade. The Gazette was among the first newspapers to subscribe to wire services in the 19th century - first using the Scripps-McRae Press Association, then International News Service, then United Press (which merged into United Press International), and, in 1986, The Associated Press. It continued that keep-up-with-the-times policy, installing a web-perfecting press in 1907 and converting to computerized printing in 1973. Among small dailies, The Gazette has been a leader in color reproduction, and it is reputed to be the smallest U.S. newspaper using daily electronic updating of its television grids and running logs.

The Gazette began a ten-year run of General Excellence awards in the Associated Press Society of Ohio's Division I contest with a First Place in 1990.

The Gazette has won three First Places, four Second Places, two Third Places, and one Honorable Mention in that all-around category. Judging is done by out-of-state newspaper staffs each year.

Continuing its tradition of technological advancement in modern times, The Delaware Gazette installed one of the broadest Internet Service Providers in the state, MidOhio.Net.

MidOhio.Net has local access in Delaware, Columbus, Sunbury, Marysville, Richwood and surrounding areas.  MidOhio.Net also provides a full range of Web Page hosting and design.

The Gazette joined other independent dailies in a first-ever joint printing agreement in the year 2000.  The Premier Printing Co. plant,  built in Marysville, produces The Delaware Gazette, the Marysville Journal-Tribune, the Bellefontaine Examiner, the Kenton Times and The Daily Chief-Union of Upper Sandusky.  Prior to this arrangement the only joint printing facilities for dailies involved regional groupings of chain-owned newspapers.  In addition to providing better production of their newspapers, the owners expect to increase their job-work business with the state-of-the-art printing facility.

On January 31st 2002, W.D. "Tom" Thomson III announced his retirement as President of The Delaware Gazette Corp and turned over control of the newspaper to his two son's, H.C. "Chip" Thomson and Thomas "T" Thomson who completed the sale to BPC in June, 2004..