I found the following article in the Lamar News, June 17, 1886, Page 2, Column 2

ALABAMA NEWSPAPERS
The American Newspaper Directory for 1886 published by Messrs Geo. P. Rowell & Co., No 10 Spruce Street, New York, reveals the following interesting facts concerning the Newspapers of this state. Since the Directory was published, there have been a few changes but the statistics are substantially correct. There are in Alabama 141 newspapers, of which 11 are dailies, 1 semi-weekly, 123 weeklies, 2 semi-monthlies and 7 monthlies. 130 are secular in character, 5 religious, 6 devoted to education, 1 to agriculture, 1 to society interests and 1 is a commercial journal, 74 are democratic in politics, 53 are independent or their political complexion is not states, 2 are republican and 1 advocates prohibition. 1 weekly is published in German language, 8 dailies and 6 weeklies are published on Sunday, 2 weeklies are issued on Monday, 5 on Tuesday, 23 on Wednesday, 46 on Thursday, 23 on Friday, and 18 on Saturday, the combined circulation is 100,000 copies in round numbers. There are 81 different names used in the main titles of these papers, News, Times, Herald, Gazette, Democrat, and Mail are most frequently used, and in the order named.
There are only 17 papers now published in this state that were in existence before the war. The Huntsville Mercury, established in 1815, is the oldest weekly and the Mobile Register, the oldest daily. The following have been in existence at least 50 years: Huntsville Mercury, Florence Gazette, Mobile Register, Montgomery Advertiser, Moulton Advertise, Selma Times, Greensboro Beacon, Tuscumbia Alabamian and Jacksonville Republican.