The Indiana Publisher

April 2022 Page 6 Brian Blair The Republic (Columbus) The newspaper that readers first picked up from their porch just seven years after the Civil War ended now can be read online from a tablet or phone around the world. And news that once was updat- ed six days per week in print now can be updated dozens of times per hour online, if need be. Yet, despite the fast-forward format changes, The Republic is essentially doing the same job it began doing 150 years ago — cov- ering Bartholomew County and the surrounding area's developments, newsmakers, leaders, visionaries, seeming scoundrels and more. And in the process, its further aim is allowing readers to share opinions and exchange ideas and perspectives in a diverse public square. The fledgling enterprise hardly was a sure thing way back in the early days when in a multi-news- paper marketplace. The paper went bankrupt very quickly at one point. In an altogether different strug- gle, the newspaper editor and the Columbus mayor got into a street fight in 1877, giving punchy head- lines a whole new meaning. And the paper included heavily partisan material in the early days, including Republican lawmakers' entire speeches reprinted amid news pages, including the front page. Columbus resident Jeff Brown, who rose to become president and CEO of Home News Enterprises, The Republic's former parent com- pany, recently reminisced about the role of his father, Robert N. Brown. The descendant of original owner and Terre Haute native Isaac T. Brown, a young Bob Brown used to watch, fascinated, as Republic copies were unloaded at its Fifth and Washington streets office. He did this so often that pressmen eventually built him a box to sit upon and watch them work. The elder Brown eventu- ally became an innovator and a visionary for growth in the national newspaper industry soon after he came back to the family business known as The Evening Republican in 1946. Jeff Brown remembers his father's overarching impact. The cutting edge "He wanted his Evening Republican and then later The Daily Journal in Franklin to be on the cutting edge of production and quality," Brown said. "So as the new family leader/ engineer in the business, the timing could not have been better. It was the golden age of newspapering, and there was a lot to be done in technical transfor- mation. He built two new produc- tion plants, with both encompass- ing innovations in both building design and newspaper processes. "Design and innovation are what he lived. As a consequence, he rose to prominence in the industry with his technical leadership." As Jeff Brown recalls, The Republic became among the first newspapers nationwide to feature its press in a glass windowed-front for the public to clearly see. En route to that symbolic and literal transpar- ency, the elder Brown earned two patents related to the offset produc- tion process. However, in the younger Brown's prime leadership era, the challenge was different, since the media landscape had dramatically shifted in the early 2000s. "I was faced with a huge title wave of disruptions to the print industry and the retail business com- munity," Jeff Brown said. "So we had to be much more nimble and flexible to react to a rapidly chang- ing newspaper environment. "The family business itself also went from one majority owner to three different cousin family groups and no majority owner. Keeping the business revenue growing by also developing our dominance as a large commercial printer in south/ central Indiana helped us continue the busi- ness and remain healthy. "We essentially built and expanded on what previous genera- tions had done. I was also fortunate to inherit a loyal and capable group of employees who were passionate about what they were doing. My greatest satisfaction was seeing our people develop careers and become some of the best of their class in the industry." Current Brown County resident Bob Gustin, editor from 1998 to 2011, had been in the top leadership role for only about 90 days when the 100-year flood of June 2008 wal- loped Columbus, destroying homes, evacuating and damaging Columbus Regional Hospital and upending lives. The paper's coverage that year won the state Associated Press Managing Editor's top award over papers of all sizes. It included sports- writers being pulled into breaking news duty and a range of flood- related stories for weeks afterward being offered for free online. Plus, the bottom of the front page for months included news to use for readers restoring valuable keepsakes, working with insurance companies, looking for volunteers to remove waterlogged items and such. A unifying moment "During that time, the newspa- per almost seemed to be a glue that helped hold the community togeth- er," Gustin said. "I think we gave people a sense of stability." Gustin ranks the experience as easily the most significant effort of his 40-plus-year journalism career — and one of the more important ways the paper served a wounded community unifying to recover. Columbus resident Chuck Wells, who served as Republic publisher then, said he was proud to be part of such a wide-ranging effort to provide residents such practical help and hope. "We became the 'go to' place for news and information on the flood, both in print and online," Wells said. "We helped this community manage our way through this tragic event … ." Current Columbus resident John Harmon, the paper's longest- tenured editor in chief, serving from 1990 to 2008 (and city edi- tor for three years before that), remembers a series of big stories the paper covered in his time: a British firm's hints of a corporate takeover of then-Cummins Engine Co. in late 1988 (big enough news to make the front page of The New York Times) and Cummins moving its heavy-duty manufacturing line to Jamestown, New York, in 2002, among others. Plus, there was the retirement of longtime Columbus North High School coach and ath- letic director Bill Stearman in 1998, after nearly half a century in that management role. But Harmon saw one of the paper's greatest and perhaps not- so-obvious long-term impacts of his time as highlighting the strength of local schools via news and feature stories. A Monday Classrooms page became a A Superb Sesquicentennial: The Republic turns a big page this month in the Columbus community Left: An early 20th century image of the newspaper building at Fifth and Washington Streets in downtown Columbus. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Historical Society. Right: An exterior of The Republic building on National Road in Columbus, Ind., Friday, April 1, 2022. Photo by Mike Wolanin. See Republic, page 9

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