Rocky Mount Telegram (Opinion)
U.S. center-left (local paper, syndicated op-eds)
Background
Founded in 1911 as The Rocky Mount Morning Telegram by Joshua Lawrence Horne III, the paper was renamed the Rocky Mount Evening Telegram within a year and has published continuously in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, for over a century. Horne served as publisher until selling the paper in 1970; ownership passed through several regional newspaper groups in subsequent decades, including Cooke Communications LLC. In 2018, Adams Publishing Group acquired the Telegram along with other Cooke Communications print and digital assets in North Carolina and Florida. Adams Publishing Group, founded in 2013 by Mark Adams (son of the late billionaire Stephen Adams), has grown into one of the larger family-owned local-news chains in the U.S., with a business model reliant on consolidating and cost-cutting at small-market papers. As a small local outlet, the Telegram's opinion pages focus heavily on regional issues — city council, schools, hurricanes, and economic development — supplemented by wire-service and syndicated national commentary. Media Bias/Fact Check rates it as having a slight left-leaning bias in its op-eds and endorsements but high factual accuracy and credibility, and it is not known for taking strong, consistent national political stances given its focus on local news.
Sources
- Rocky Mount Telegram - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
- Rocky Mount Telegram (Wikipedia)
- Adams MultiMedia (Wikipedia)
- Telegram honors the editors who have been stewards of journalism in the region for nearly 115 years | North Carolina Press Association
- The Rocky Mount Telegram Media Bias | AllSides
Profile compiled 2026-09-29; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.