The Salisbury Post debuted as The Salisbury Evening Post Jan. 9, 1905, and immediately proclaimed itself as "Salisbury's Leading Afternoon Newspaper." J.B. Doub, E.C. Arey and Gabe M. Royal launched the newspaper at 114 1/2 N. Main St., on the floor over G.A. Jackson's saloon. Joe X. Roueche and Clint N. Brown, former owners and publishers of the competing Salisbury Daily Sun, soon bought the Post and moved the operation across North Main Street to occupy the second floor of the old Meroney Opera House. A fire destroyed the Meroney Opera House on the morning of May 12, 1912, and took every vestige of equipment and record of the Post. But the newspaper kept publishing, as the editorial and mechanical staffs traveled to Spencer and used the office of A.W. Hicks, publisher of a small weekly. Meanwhile, Roueche and Brown began negotiating the sale of the Post to a group of investors led by James Franklin Hurley, a former owner of The Concord Tribune. The change in ownership became official on July 22, 1912, and the Post moved back to Salisbury and began publication in the Shaver Building at 110 W. Innes St. Hurley served as both editor and publisher. He bought out most of the other original investors by 1919. The Post moved to its present location at 131 W. Innes St. in 1922. The Hurley family owned and operated the Salisbury Post until its sale to Evening Post Publishing Co. of Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 31, 1997. In February 2014, Boone Newspapers Inc., purchased the Salisbury Post and formed Salisbury Newsmedia LLC.
