News Publishing Company changing hands

The Trempealeau County Times will again be under new ownership, though major changes to the newspaper itself are not expected.

Dan and Mark Witte, owners of News Publishing Company, Inc. — the parent company of the Times — sold the business to longtime company Chief Financial Officer Tom Finger. Finger worked for the Witte family at News Publishing Company for 25 years. 

News Publishing has existed since Jan. 3, 1978 when Curtis Witte bought a group of publications in western Dane County and Green County from Bill and Dolores Griffith.

The company has been a family-owned corporation from its inception and has been managed by publishers Dan and Mark Witte over the past 45 years. During that time, News Publishing has purchased and sold a number of publications and is now comprised of 14 weekly community newspapers and multiple shoppers that still serve the original communities in addition to the counties of Jackson, Trempealeau, Clark, Sauk, Marquette, Outagamie, Calumet, Brown, and Allamakee, Iowa.

The Witte family decided earlier this year that it was time to fully retire and sell the newspaper company, but they wanted to make sure it stayed intact and continued their vision of community journalism, which is to provide unbiased local coverage in each of our communities. With the sale to Finger, the company’s newspapers will continue to provide the best coverage of local news and events and an advertising medium that works for local customers.

“The Witte family wishes to thank all the employees over the decades as well as a special thank you to all our subscribers and advertisers,” said News Publishing CEO Mark Witte. 

The new corporation behind the papers will be Finger Publishing, Inc. The readers and recipients of the papers and shoppers will not be impacted by the sale. All employees will be retained and continue in their current roles. Finger Publishing, Inc. will continue to run the publishing, printing, and delivery operation out of the Black Earth location. 

“We are thankful to the entire Witte family for their support and unwavering commitment to the role of community journalism over the years,” said Matt Geiger, a managing editor with the company. “And we are both excited and comforted to know the publications we care so deeply about will be in the hands of a new owner who has vast experience overseeing the newspapers that chronicle the communities we call home. We know we will flourish under Tom’s leadership.”

News Publishing Company purchased and merged three Trempealeau County newspapers — the Whitehall Times, Galesville Republican and Arcadia News-Leader — to create the Trempealeau County Times, which debuted in January of 2011. The Times had been under Gauger family ownership — first Robert Gauger then his son, Charles — for more that 56 years, interrupted briefly by the sale of the paper and its companion business, Whitehall Printing Co., in 1972 to Ed and Louise Goodpaster, who resold the business to Robert Gauger two years later.

“We are dedicated to continuing the vision of community journalism the Witte family strived to achieve,” Finger said. “Community papers are vitally important to the communities they serve. As times change, we will adapt to those changes, but these papers will continue to serve our communities for the foreseeable future.”