In April 1912 Drysdale established a small subsidiary newspaper, the Streaky Bay standard and West Coast advertiser, which only lasted two issues before being absorbed into the Recorder. For the rest of that year a separate page in the Recorder was headed with this title. Twenty years later, the Recorder proprietors published a longer running second title, TheChallenger, the 'official organ of the Eyre Peninsula Primary Producers and Taxpayers Association'. This ceased publication in 1934.

While touring Australia in 1920, Drysdale became ill and died at his home in Port Lincoln on 1 February 1921. The Recorder was taken over by Mrs R.L. McGregor and her two sons. McGregor had worked under Drysdale at the Port Augusta dispatch and claimed to have been instrumental in suggesting he begin a newspaper at Port Lincoln. In 1925 she was first approached by another former Port Augusta dispatch employee, Maurice Hill, to sell the Recorder. She refused, and consequently, in 1927, Hill, with J.E. Edwards founded the Port Lincoln times. McGregor made her opinion of the rival newspaper public knowledge on the front of the Recorder in October 1932 (27 October 1932, p. 1). Hill took over the Recorder in February 1939.

During the Second World War, the Recorder maintained its news coverage, giving space to comforts fund appeals and fund-raising, Red Cross and C.W.A. news, and reports of the activities of local servicemen and women. 'Letters from members of our fighting forces' was a regular and lengthy column. Shortly before Christmas 1942, the Recorder announced that it was suspending publication 'owing to circumstances associated with the war' (21 December 1942, p. 2). Its readers were informed that their subscriptions would be transferred to the Port Lincoln times.