The Manhattan Mercury is the local newspaper for Manhattan, Kansas. The Mercury is a daily newspaper published in the afternoon five days a week, and in the morning on Sunday. No Saturday edition is issued. The newspaper is physically printed on the Mercury's own in-house presses. The newspaper also maintains an online presence.^[2]

History

The Mercury was founded as a weekly publication on May 9, 1884, at a time when Manhattan was already served by two other competing newspapers.^[3] It became a daily on February 8, 1909.

After passing through four different owners, the newspaper was purchased by Fay N. Seaton in 1915.^[4] He was the founder of the Seaton publishing group, which still owns the paper.^[5][6] Fay Seaton ran the paper until his death in 1952. During his time as publisher, The Mercury bought out all of its in-town rivals, beginning with the Morning Chronicle around 1915. Seaton thereafter operated the Chronicle as a separate paper until 1943, when it was merged with the Mercury. In 1926, Seaton purchased the Manhattan Nationalist – the oldest newspaper in Manhattan, dating back to 1859 – and began operating under both names (until 1943). Fay Seaton's son Fred Andrew Seaton ran another newspaper in the Seaton publishing group, the Hastings (Neb.) Tribune, before entering into politics.