A Moment in Time (from the local history files at SWCPL): The Tribune car sits outside the newspaper office waiting to carry a reporter to their next assignment.

For over 100 years, the news of the community was printed in the South Whitley Tribune or its forerunners. With the exception of a couple of years, there has been a newspaper in South Whitley since 1883. A Mr. Meyers brought journalism to South Whitley, bringing printing equipment with him on a horse-drawn wagon. Under Meyers’ direction, the town’s first newspaper, The Magnet, was published. It ceased publication in 1885 and for two years, the community was without a newspaper. In 1887, a 21-year-old college graduate, W.E. Ashcraft, issued the first edition of the South Whitley News, also known as the Whitley County News. There has been a continuous newspaper publication since that time.

The newspaper had many different publishers over its early history including Web Emerson, Dr. W.W. Stauffer, Robert Emerson and Frank Miner. Around 1904, the AtoZ Printing Company took ownership of the newspaper. When the company left in 1914, ownership was taken over by W.C. Cascadden, who changed the name to the South Whitley Tribune, which remained the name of the paper from 1914-1975. In 1975, the name was changed to the Tribune-News to incorporate the Pierceton community.

Cascadden turned over the newspaper to Harry S. Loring in 1915 and a parade of publishers followed over the next 18 years, including Robert D. Higley, J.R. Cunningham, W.J. Miller, Lloyd Yeiser, Artley Cullum and A. C. Yearick. Hubert Stump, who later operated the Stump Printing Company, bought the newspaper in 1933 and served as its publisher until 1943 when Basil Adams became the publisher. Prior to this time, the newspaper had many locations around town, but it was Adams who bought the location on State Street that was the newspaper office for the next several decades. After two years, Adams sold the business to Charles M. Bowerman and Harold Tschantz, who operated it for nearly 30 years before selling it to Dave Tranter in 1974. Dave and his wife Linda operated the Tribune-News for 32 years before selling it in 2007 to Teresa and Phil Smith.

The local newspaper became part of the Warsaw Times-Union company in recent years and the building was purchased by Terry Eberly and is being remodeled.