The Pilot News

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox newspaper

| name = The Pilot News

| image =

| caption =

| type = Daily newspaper

| format = Broadsheet

| foundation = 1851

| ceased publication =

| owners = Horizon Publications

| publisher = Cindy Stockton

| editor = James Master

| language =

| political = Republican

| circulation = 4,435

| headquarters = 218 N. Michigan
Plymouth, Indiana 46563

| oclc = 8807950

| ISSN =

| website = {{URL|thepilotnews.com}}

}}

The Pilot News is a six-day-a-week daily newspaper serving Plymouth, Indiana, United States, and the surrounding area, with a circulation of 4,435.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mondotimes.com/1/world/us/14/878/2214|title=Plymouth Pilot News newspaper|website=Mondo Times}} Covering local news and sports both online and in print, it delivers Monday through Saturday throughout Marshall County.

It has five sister papers. These include three weekly papers delivered each Thursday: Heartland News, delivered in the towns of Nappanee, Wakarusa, Bremen, Bourbon; Culver Citizen in the town of Culver; and The Leader throughout Starke County. There are also two shopper products: The Shopper, delivered Saturday/Sunday throughout Marshall County; and The Review, delivered Tuesday throughout Starke County.

The Valparaiso Vidette Messenger[https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8243 Valparaiso Vidette Messenger] and the Rushville Republican published stories on The Pilot News{{'}} 100th birthday on July 31, 1951, detailing how it was one of only twelve daily newspapers in Indiana when it was first established.{{Cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/valparaiso-vidette-messenger-jul-31-1951-p-1/|title="The Hoosier Day"|last=White|first=Frank|date=31 July 1951|website=Newspaper Archive|access-date=25 October 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/rushville-evening-daily-republican-jul-31-1951-p-1/|title=The Hoosier Day|date=31 July 1951|website=Newspaper Archive|access-date=25 October 2018}}

The Pilot was founded in 1851 by John Q. Howell.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury01mcdo|page=[https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury01mcdo/page/287 287]|quote=howell plymouth pilot.|title=A Twentieth Century History of Marshall County, Indiana|last=McDonald|first=Daniel|date=1908|publisher=Lewis Publishing Company|language=en}} It had the odd quirk of publishing its first issue as number 13, which was explained by Howell as an effort to retain continuity of numbering with his previous paper, the Rochester Republican.

The Pilot announced its politics as Jacksonian, but pledged to "never descend to that abuse of our opponents in Opinion which is too often resorted to by partizan Presses."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21540625/the_plymouth_pilot/|title=The Pilot|date=16 April 1861|work=The Pilot}} Howell moved his paper form Rochester to Plymouth when some townspeople in Plymouth offered him $200 to relocate.

The Pilot has since gone through multiple owners and many different names, and ultimately switched from being a Democratic paper to a Republican one. It returned to its original name after the merger of the Plymouth Pilot and the Plymouth News in 1947.{{Cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015659/|title=About The Plymouth pilot-news. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1947-1966|website=Library of Congress|access-date=25 October 2018}} Under a unique arrangement, the Republican Pilot initially published a copy under the News name and masthead with all the articles the same, but the editorial content from a Democratic perspective.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21541305/plymouth_daily_news_is_going_out_of/|title=Plymouth Daily News Is Going Out Of Business|date=28 November 1940|work=The Bremen Enquirer}}

The paper was sold to Park Newspapers in March 1977.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21557110/new_york_chain_buys_plymouth_pilot_news/|title=New York chain buys Plymouth Pilot news|date=27 January 1977|work=Arizona Daily Star}} In 2003, Horizon Publications purchased it from Community Newspaper Holdings.{{Cite news|url=https://newsok.com/article/1930310/illinois-company-buys-three-state-newspapers|title=Illinois company buys three state newspapers|date=22 May 2003|work=NewsOK.com}} It had a location sales volume of $1,702,000 as of September 2018.{{Cite web|url=http://www.referenceusa.com.proxynw.uits.iu.edu/UsBusiness/Detail/All/e5bed0446d164217bb0344692df5d220/0?recordId=402311393|title=Plymouth News|date=September 2018|website=ReferenceUSA}}