The Post Newspapers Member Profile

Story by Dwight Bitikofer Northeastern Ohio has an economy that was defined for years as "autos, steel and rubber." That gleam of chrome and power has blown its tires and has been crashing into ditches for some years now. The tow trucks are slow to arrive. Newspapers and advertising have been in trouble too. So who is this optimistic publisher out of Medina, Ohio who had a record sales year in 2008 and who started a new paper in March, 2009 and has another expansion planned for the fall of this year? Meet Bruce Trogdon and his son Mike at The Post Newspapers. "We decided to go forward while everyone else is going backward," said Trogdon. "And so far it is working." The Trogdons are still hiring. With a regional unemployment rate of around 15 percent, they have a wide field of prospects from which to choose five new sales reps. Trogdon jokes dryly that the local economy is driven by unemployment checks. Currently the company has 32 employees, including a sales manager and 11 full-time sales persons who work on straight commission. The Post Newspapers consist of seven weekly editions - all Sunday papers. They go to 90,000 homes in Medina and Wayne counties just west of Akron and just south of Cleveland. New offices are just off Interstate 71 in Medina. The old Rittman, Ohio office is mostly a circulation center. The papers range in distribution size from the Norton Post at 5,000, to the Medina Post at 20,000 and the Brunswick Post at 22,000. The magazine-style tabs are currently running from about 68 to 80 pages. The papers bulk up with an average of 350,000 inserts a week. The papers are carrier delivered, except for the newest paper, The Brunswick Post. It is mailed, with the majority of recipients receiving it on Saturday. The company is in the process of ramping up its Web site with auto-search features. Trogdon has spent a couple of days a week this year researching Web products. He is working with custom software developed by a company called Gabriel. The Trogdons plan to package online and paper advertising. The Post has strong support from supermarket chains in all its markets. As The Cleveland Plain Dealer has seen circulation erode, The Post papers have become more and more attractive as the best way to reach shoppers. The papers run with a news content of about 25 percent. They are very localized and include coverage of local government, school districts, high school sports and elementary school activities. Mike Trogdon is managing editor. He also oversees all production and computer systems. Initially his father was most unhappy when Mike dropped out of law school in 2002 to join the family business. But Bruce Trogdon said the partnership has re-energized him and given him new enthusiasm for the free paper business. Long time general manager Ray LeRoy recently retired to Sedona, Ariz. Bruce Trogdon had spent most of the 90s working only part-time at the paper with LeRoy capably handling day-to-day operations. But now he is excited about the business again. Back in 1974, Trogdon took a job selling ads from a subscription weekly in his hometown. It was called The Rittman Press. He was an 18-year-old college student. A year later, with his college girlfriend, he started a free paper called The Chippewa Valley Messenger. Trogdon sold ads, the girlfriend typeset them. "I had never heard of a free newspaper when I started mine in 1975," remembers Trogdon. "I thought that I had invented the concept." But by 1980, he was a member of the National Association of Advertising Publications (NAAP) and voted with the publishers who seceded from that organization to become Independent Free Papers of America (IFPA). The paper became The Messenger and its classified section the Trading Post. They evolved away from news and became strictly a shopper for many years. The Wadsworth Post now covers the Wayne County communities of the original papers. The girlfriend became Sabrina Trogdon, a title she has now held for 32 years. In 1982, Sabrina retired from the paper business to raise a family of two daughters and a son. One daughter, Mandy, has given the Trogdons four grandchildren (with another on the way). She does the company payroll from home. Another daughter, Bryn, is getting a Masters in Nursing. The Trogdons developed another passion: horses. That passion grew to become Emerald Highlands Farm where they breed standardbred racehorses. During the 1990s, Bruce Trogdon spent most of this time on the farm, near Mount Vernon in central Ohio. The 260 acres of rolling green hills is home to 25 brood mares and foals and breeding stock. The farm supplies horses that pull the sulkies in harness racing. Retired racers often find themselves born again into a new life of pulling Amish buggies on the narrow blacktop country roads of central and northeastern Ohio. The Trogdons still have the farm, but have hired help there so Bruce can again spend long days at the newspaper business. They have houses both at the farm and in Medina. Bruce Trogdon said that he and Mike are both "exercise nuts," and intersperse 7-day work weeks with workouts. Mike Trogdon, 29, participates in Triathlon events. Bruce at 53, has retired from running, but works out and bicycles daily. He recently entered his first bicycle race. The Post papers are members of IFPA, Association of Free Community Papers (AFCP) and Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA). The Post was voted as The Best Free home Delivered Newspaper (in the 25 percent news category) at the recent AFCP conference. The Post has also won general excellence awards with IFPA. The benefits of IFPA have included conferences and currently include Circulation Verification Council audits and sales training boot camps. The company had a record sales year in 2008, but has seen sales lag in the early part of 2009. In May and June, however, Trogdon said sales pulled ahead of last year. Has the current economy changed the way of doing business at The Post? "(The economy) is killing my competition - the dailies - so I am expanding while they cut back," said Trogdon. "There is always opportunity in a recession. I started my paper in one recession (1975) and transformed it in another (1981 and 2001). Let's see who is the last man standing, this old hands-on IFPA guy or the daily newspaper country club publishers." Trogdon said that business is always changing. Whether the model he has worked with since 1975 will survive or not, he doesn't know. "Now, I have to figure out something that will last for another 30 years," said the elder Trogdon. "I have reactivated my free paper career. I am working to make something I am enthused about again." Writer Dwight Bitikofer is an IFPA director and publishes Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times newspapers in suburban St. Louis.