Formed in 1995 with the acquisition of the Longboat Observer, the family-owned and operated Observer Media Group Inc. has grown into a multimedia company with 11 newspapers, six websites, three quarterly lifestyle magazines and 100 employees serving multiple communities around Florida. The company’s portfolio of newspapers includes four free community weeklies serving the Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., market — Longboat Observer, East County Observer, Sarasota Observer and Siesta Key Observer; two free weeklies serving the east coast markets of Palm Coast/Flagler County and Ormond Beach, near Daytona Beach — Palm Coast Observer and Ormond Beach Observer; the West Orange Times & Observer and Southwest Orange Observer serving Winter Garden, Windermere, Ocoee, and Horizon West in Orange County; the Business Observer, a paid-circulation weekly with subscribers extending from Tampa to Naples; the Jacksonville Daily Record, a five-day-a-week, paid-circulation daily, and the weekly Jacksonville Record & Observer, serving Greater Jacksonville. The company’s associated websites include YourObserver.com, PalmCoastObserver.com, OrmondBeachObserver.com, OrangeObserver.com, BusinessObserverFL.com and JaxDailyRecord.com. Season magazine is the quarterly arts and social guide; LWR Life is a quarterly, coated-stock magazine distributed in Lakewood Ranch in partnership with Schroeder-Manatee Ranch; and Baldwin Park Living Magazine is a monthly serving the affluent Baldwin Park community near downtown Orlando. In July 2021, Observer Media Group received 10 first-place awards from the Florida Press Association’s Weekly Newspaper Contest for excellence in writing, photography and design.