Warren H Canright, front, works on a Linotype at The Chesterton Tribune in this archive photo. Provided image
The Chesterton Tribune's office in downtown Chesterton is shown. Staff photo by Joseph S. Pete.
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The Region’s oldest surviving newspaper will live on to meet deadlines on another day.
A new owner announced the purchase of the Chesterton Tribune, the now 137-year-old newspaper that put out what was supposed to be its final print edition at the end of last year. The terms were not disclosed.
Don Hurd, the president of Hometown Media Inc., announced on Facebook he had bought Northwest Indiana’s longest continuously operating newspaper.
“I visited a nice little town today in Porter County, Indiana,” he posted along with a picture of the Chesterton Tribune’s Gothic masthead. “So, I said to myself, ‘I like this town.’ Then I bought their local newspaper.”
Hurd did not respond to immediate requests for comment about the acquisition, other than to say, “News travels fast.”
Longtime Chesterton Tribune reporter Kevin Nevers, who’s now the public affairs liaison for the town of Chesterton, was overjoyed by the news that the longtime community institution would be saved.
“For nearly 24 years I worked as a reporter for the Chesterton Tribune, but I learned almost from the beginning how vital the newspaper was to the community. Beloved, too. I’d hear folks talk about the ‘hometown rag,’ but it was always said with affection and pride and maybe, too, with a sense of communal ownership. ... So the shuttering of the paper on Dec. 30 was like a body blow to the community,” he said.
Hometown Media Inc. operates at least a dozen community newspapers in Indiana, including the Huntington County TAB, The Paper of Wabash County and the North Manchester News-Journal. Last year, Hurd’s company revived the 108-year-old Daily Clintonian in Clinton near Terre Haute months after it closed.
Hurd has worked in newspaper management for more than 40 years, working with Howard Publications, Home News Enterprises, Liberty Media Group and Community Media Group. He has served as president of the Hoosier State Press Association and the Indiana Advertising Executives Association, as a board member for the Illinois Press Association, and as a guest presenter for Inland Press Association and Hoosier State Press Association on how newspapers can generate more revenue.
The Ball State University graduate founded Hoosier Media Group with the intent of buying newspapers and shoppers across the state of Indiana.
Based in downtown Chesterton, the Chesterton Tribune has served Chesterton, Porter, Burns Harbor and the Duneland area in Porter County since 1884.
Longtime Publisher David Canright said the coronavirus pandemic doomed the print edition of the long-running family-owned and locally operated newspaper, telling readers he saw “no viable path to continuing a printed version of the paper while giving local news the space it deserves” in a farewell column in what was then believed to be the final issue.
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