A FLORIDA AMATEUR JOURNALISTS’ ASSOCIATION WAS FORMED in Jacksonville, July 6, 1893, with Russell W. Bennett as President. In 1894 Ernest B. Simmons was President, Linden D. Dey, Secretary, and C. B. Duffey, Editor.
In 1870, in Fernardina, J. W. Allen published Sunny South. George E. Bryson issued Little Floridian in Hawkinsville in 1877. He turned the paper over to Walter S. Russell, who published it in Orlando in 1878 and in Apopka in 1879. His brother, C. M. Russell, sent out the Young Worker from Apopka in 1879.
In 1890, in Jacksonville, Linden D. Dey began the publication of a noted magazine called the Villa De Laura Times, and amateur journalism flourished in Florida for the next ten years. Among the papers published were the Mosquito by Russell W. Bennett, Okahumpka; the Alligator, Charles B. Duffey, Jacksonville; the Midget, Ethel Stout, Melbourne; Amateur Clippings, R. P. Kinney, Pierson; the Free Press, Ernest B. Simons, Midland. Later, in 1935, Jack W. Bond issued the Southern Amateur from Pensacola, and in 1938 from Daytona Bcach, B. F. Bianchi sent forth the Mocking Bird.