In 1888, nine union printers found themselves out of work because their unions had decreed a strike. Not content to await the outcome of the strike, as most union printers were then doing, they looked around for something to do that would pay expenses until something better turned up. This resulted in their determination to start a new newspaper. They were all but out of money so it became necessary that they do all of the work of collecting the news, editing and proof reading, as well as securing advertising patrons themselves. They eventually managed, in some way or the other, to secure sufficient funds for their enterprise and found a back room in a basement, which they could finance, and from there they launched a new evening paper on April 12, 1888.
Working out of a basement office, located at West 9th and State Streets, some of the original members of the project soon became discouraged and left the newspaper, but John J. Mead and Jacob F. Liebel clung to it through all of its early troubles, and in 1890, new partners were added when Messrs. J. H. Kelly, John Miller and D. S. (Dock) Crawford joined the paper. As fast as practicable new equipment was secured, new departments were added; the job department was discarded and the venture became a substantial business enterprise. The members had then long ceased setting type themselves and carting the forms to a small job office in their neighborhood. They secured linotype machines of the latest pattern, replacing their old presses with more modern ones.
The newspaper relocated to West 10th and Peach Street on April 12, 1924. In the years to follow, in 1941, tragedy struck, when founder John Mead, Sr. was killed in an accident. The company would be run by his wife, Mary Boland Mead, until her death in 1957. Under Boland’s leadership the company continued to expand its coverage by introducing, in 1949, a new Sunday edition, the Sunday Times-News. The new paper was an immediate success.
The Times Publishing Company bought out the rival Erie Dispatch Herald in 1956 and co-located the two newspapers' staffs in 1957 in the Dispatch Herald's building at East 12th and French streets. On January 7, 1957, the Erie Morning News made its debut.
In 1969 the Times Publishing Company built a new plant, housing a Goss Metro offset press, at 205 West 12th Street, moving there on June 6, 1970. The company kept the editorial departments of the "Morning News" — the word "Erie" was removed from the name of the morning paper during the 1960s, separating it from the evening paper, the Erie Daily Times.
When the company expanded into its new headquarters, on 12th and Sassafras Streets, they purchased the most sophisticated and modern newspaper production equipment available. The other departments served the entire operation; news and sports reporters shared desks, coming in on separate shifts. Members of both staffs manned the Sunday Times-News. In 1977 the two Saturday editions were combined into the Times-News Weekender, a paper staffed only by Morning News reporters and editors. The company published the Morning News and the afternoon Erie Daily Times until September 29, 2000 and September 1, 2000, respectively. The company merged the two staffs and operations into the Erie Times-News, which was first published on October 2, 2000
With the merger, the Meads gradually shifted day-to-day leadership of the newspaper outside of the family. In August of 2003, company Vice President James E. Dible was promoted to chief executive officer, president and publisher, succeeding the retiring Michael Mead, the grandson of the company founder. At about the same time, Michael Mead's first cousin, Edward M. Mead, stepped down as editor, turning over leadership of the newsroom to Executive Editor Rick Sayers. Michael Mead continued to serve on the company's board of directors, and by August of 2003, the Mead family, which still owned the Times company, no longer headed the newspaper.
The Times Publishing Company, which has been owned in part, or in total, by members of the Mead family since its founding, was sold by the family in 2016, ending the local ownership of the newspaper when an entity controlled by New Media Investment Group Inc. entered an agreement to takes over the operation of the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com.
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| Erie Times Building, West 10th Street (1924 - 1957) |
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| Erie Times Building, West 12th Street and French Streets (1957 - 1970) |
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| Erie Times Building, West 12th Street and French Streets (1957 - 1970) |
