Made in Northwest Ohio: Newspapers near and far

Every now and then, a statistic hits me in the face. I had one of those moments recently when preparing info for a meeting of our editorial leaders. I was talking about our organization's pillars. Nothing is more important than providing quality local products in this region — giving readers much-needed information about their communities and providing trusted and effective marketing pathways for businesses and nonprofits. But two other key functions have taken on extra importance as our evolution continues. The first is an analog process — the physical printing and packaging of newspapers. The second is a digital process — the designing of newspaper pages using an intuitive process. Both areas we've grown and developed in the past few years, emerging as regional "hubs" of both printing and page design. In fact, this is the thing people are most surprised and amazed about when I casually discuss what I do for a living. All of this brings me to the stat. One of my key functions is to lead our Northwest Ohio group of papers — the daily papers in Findlay, Sandusky, Tiffin, Norwalk and Fostoria. But that's far from it. Our press prints 18 different community newspaper titles (all either weekly or daily), with a team inserting, sorting and preparing them to be trucked to a number of different Ohio regions, including Northwest Ohio, Southwest Ohio, the Columbus area and the Cleveland area. And our page design hub, which features a handful of Northwest Ohio employees, builds the news pages for 11 different papers, including six from outside of Ohio (five Michigan papers and a Kansas paper). Add it all up, and that is 24 different community publications that in one of two major ways (page design or printing) are created in Findlay. And that is not counting the five papers whose every step in their creation journey is done by our local team. It's both overwhelming and worth celebrating. Our scope is large, and being on the cutting edge of industry trends such as printing and page design, is a great position to be in. It's a relatively new phenomenon to be doing so much in one physical location. Not too long ago, most papers were built, printed and packaged at their home base. But as the cost to run a press increased, as did the need for business efficiency, many looked to outsource some publishing functions. We've stepped in and filled the void, providing a valuable service that helps publications remain locally profitable. None of this is possible without a great team, and that's exactly what we have. Whether it's our trusty pressmen, our hard-working mailroom staff, our dedicated page designers, our intrepid journalists, our caring customer service reps, our savvy sales staff or our helpful business staff, we are a team of people here in Northwest Ohio who care about our customers and our products. I am so proud of what we are doing. As the publishing business evolves, fueled by a great team, we are making a difference. That difference is not only through the sharp and comprehensive coverage of the communities within range of our five daily papers, but it is also found in those publications who are imprinted with "made in Northwest Ohio," due to our outstanding team. Jeremy Speer is the publisher of The Courier, Findlay, the Sandusky Register, The Advertiser-Tribune, Tiffin, the Norwalk Reflector and Review Times, Fostoria. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.