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| Type | Dailynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Sample News Group |
| Publisher | R. John Mitchell |
| Editor | Steven Pappas[1] |
| Founded | 1897 |
| Headquarters | Barre, Vermont, U.S. |
| Circulation | 4,500 (as of 2021)[2] |
| Website | timesargus |
TheBarre Montpelier Times Argus is a daily newspaper serving the capital region ofVermont. The circulation area includesWashington,Orange,Lamoille,Addison,Caledonia, and parts ofChittenden,Franklin,Orleans andWindsor counties.
TheTimes Argus is the product of a union of theBarre Daily Times and theMontpelier Evening Argus in 1959.[3] TheBarre Times was founded by Frank E. Langley, a printer fromWilmot,New Hampshire.[4] Langley and his wife printed the paper out of their house, with a news policy of "Barre first and the rest of the world after." The first edition came out on March 16, 1897, and cost one cent. Langley's son remembered playing on the floor while Mrs. Langley set type in their Barre home.
In 1917, Langley encouraged his employees to become partners, and upon his death in 1938 six men became shareholders, including Alex Walker. Walker bought out his partners in 1958, and purchased theMontpelier Argus on August 29, 1959. The firstBarre-Montpelier Times Argus was published on August 30, 1959.
TheMontpelier Argus was struggling financially when it was purchased, working with an antiquated press and a dilapidated building (theTimes Argus has a Montpelier office in the same building that once housed theArgus, at 112 Main Street in Montpelier. Currently the office houses the Vermont Press Bureau and the Montpelier reporter for theTimes Argus).
Founded as the weeklyArgus-Patriot in 1863 by Hiram Atkins, theArgus became a daily on October 30, 1897. The first edition cost one cent, and included this proposition: "... know how to make a newspaper, and one which will merit the name and prove a credit to the city of Montpelier." By then it was owned by Atkins' son Morris, who assumed ownership when his father died in 1893. Morris Atkins passed on the newspaper to his daughter Elaine in the 1940s. At that time, the newspaper had an all-female reporting staff due toWorld War II. One of these women, Doris Jones, started at theArgus in 1945 and was employed by the newspaper until 1995.
In 1959, the newspaper was bought by Walker, who then sold the combined newspaper to Robert W. Mitchell and Gene Noble, owners of theRutland Herald, in 1963. In 1979, Robert's son R. John became publisher of theTimes Argus.[5] Mitchell and his son R. John bought out the Noble family in 1986, and the newspaper remained family-owned for some time.
In 2015, R. John Mitchell turned over publishing duties of theTimes Argus to Catherine Nelson who had been vice president and CEO of the paper.[6] R. John stayed connected to the newspaper by continuing to serve as the president and chairman of the board of directors while his son, Rob Mitchell, became editor-in-chief.[6]
In 2016, theTimes Argus andRutland Herald were sold toReade Brower of Maine and Chip Harris of New Hampshire. Earlier in the year, both papers had cut back their publication frequency from a daily cycle to four days per week.[7] In 2018, Brower and Harris sold theTimes Argus andRutland Herald toSample News Group.[8]
In 2020, theTimes Argus stopped printing theWaterbury Reader, which it had offered as a free community paper for two years.[9][10]
