<P> As of December 2015, The Plain Dealer had more than 250,000 daily readers and 790,000 readers on Sunday . The Plain Dealer's media market, the Cleveland - Akron DMA (Designated Market Area), is one of the Top 20 markets in the United States . With a population of 3.8 million people, it is the fourth - largest market in the Midwest, and Ohio's largest media market . </P> <P> In April 2013 The Plain Dealer announced it would reduce home delivery to four days a week, including Sunday . This went into effect on August 5, 2013 . A daily version of The Plain Dealer is available electronically as well as in print at stores, newsracks and newsstands . </P> <P> The newspaper was established in 1842, less than 50 years after Moses Cleaveland landed on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in The Flats, and is currently owned by Advance Publications (Newhouse Newspapers). The Plain Dealer Publishing Company is under the direction of George Rodrigue (president). The paper employs over 700 people . </P> <P> The newspaper was sold on March 1, 1967, to S.I. Newhouse's newspaper chain, and has been under the control of the Newhouse family ever since . The paper was previously held by the trusts of the Holden estate, and operated as The Plain Dealer Publishing Company, part of the Forest City Publishing Company, which also published the Cleveland News until its purchase and subsequent closing by its major competitor, the Cleveland Press, owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, in 1960 . </P>

When did the plain dealer begin their first publication