The "Herald-Leader" was created by a 1983 merger of the Lexington Herald and the Lexington Leader. The story of the "Herald" begins in 1870 with a paper known as the "Lexington Daily Press". In 1895, a descendant of that paper was first published as the "Morning Herald", later to be renamed the "Lexington Herald" in 1905. Meanwhile, in 1888 a group of Fayette County Republicans began publication of a competing afternoon paper named the "Kentucky Leader", which became known as the "Lexington Leader" in 1901.