The Northeast News Gleaner billed themselves as "the oldest weekly newspaper in Northeast Philadelphia". Known informally as the News Gleaner, and founded in 1882 by the Henry family, the publication had been operating out of the Frankford Section of Philadelphia for 117 years. The company later moved to a 32,000-square-foot (3,000 m2) building on Gantry Road in the Far Northeast in March 1999.
In 2002, News Gleaner Publications was purchased by the Journal Register Company; combined with the Northeast Breeze and the Olney Times, Journal Register's weeklies had a combined circulation of more than 120,000 people. On December 11, 2008, due to the economic crisis and the inability to sell the newspaper group, the papers were closed and employees were told to clear out their desks immediately without warning, just one day after the paper printed what would turn out to be their last issue.