Marking a major MILESTONE
The Reporter: Proud 150-year legacy began with German printer in 1870
When Frederick Wagner came to the village of Lansdale in 1870 he had one goal in mind — to open a print shop and earn enough money to support his wife and kids. And boy did he start something!
Wagner who immigrated to this country from Germany a few years earlier saw potential in the bustling hamlet of 400 souls who settled here because it was a railroad junction town at a time when trains were the kings of transportation.
It didn’t take long for him to recognize Lansdale needed a newspaper to replace the German language Presse, which folded in the mid-1860s. His would be different — it would be printed in English and it would be named the Lansdale Reporter.
On October 27, 1870, Wagner cranked out his first edition of The Reporter on a flat-bed hand press after setting the type himself letter by letter. His shop, at Second and Walnut streets where the William E. Hare American Legion Post is now, was no more than a shed behind his house.
Today, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of The Reporter which has grown from a four-page weekly newspaper to a seven-day-a-week regional publication that serves the North Penn Valley and beyond.
Fred Wagner’s first edition was modest, to say the least. First and foremost, he ran a print shop and his objective was to use The Reporter to promote his own business, which included signs, handbills, stationery and business cards. Local news was confined to the two inside pages and most of it was short bits of local gossip, railroad news, carriage accidents, fire reports and occasional coverage of government meetings.
Wagner’s association with The Reporter ended in 1877; apparently he tired of the administrative burdens of the business. Ownership changed hands four times over the next years, but the little paper continued to grow. Circulation topped 2,000 by 1887 when H.M Woodmansee, a skilled journalist and businessman, became owner and editor.
The Reporter flourished under Woodmansee’s leadership. He moved local news to the front page, expanded the coverage of local and county government, published sports on a regular basis and offered hardhitting editorial commentary. Unfortunately, Woodmansee died unexpectedly of pneumonia in 1916. His heirs sold the paper to a pair of Boston journalists, Walter Sanborn and William Temple.
Sanborn and Temple discovered that running a newspaper was much more difficult than writing for one, and in 1923, they were forced to sell The Reporter to
Chester W. Knipe, publisher of the tri-weekly North Penn Review which competed with The Reporter for more than 30 years. The renamed paper was called the North Penn Review and Lansdale Reporter.
Sanborn was determined. He went on the road selling newspaper supplies and managed to gather enough money to buy out Knipe in 1927 and do away with the North Penn Review part of the name plate. His rechristened “North Penn Reporter” moved to a new plant and offices at 306 Courtland St. and began publishing five days a week.
Under Sanborn, The Reporter expanded its staff with reporters like George Knipe and Calvin Craig; Knipe knew the local community inside and out, Craig was the paper’s first journalism school-trained writer. They complimented Sanborn’s own aggressive writing style.
Sanborn g reatly increased the paper’s advertising revenue by focusing on the family-run, mom-and-pop businesses in the immediate area. The “North Penn” masthead invited inclusion for communities like Ambler, North Wales, Hatfield, Souderton, Doylestown, Sellersville, Perkasie, any stop along the railroad.
He was a crusader. His unyielding editorial support is generally credited
with saving Memorial Park in the 1930s. He vigorously promoted war bonds, and he endorsed political candidates who met his standards. Stories abound of potential office-holders waiting in line at The Reporter building in hopes of winning Sanborn’s approval.
During Sanborn’s reign, the Equitable Publishing Co. was established, which included among others, George Knipe, and Howard C. Berky, who came from Bethlehem to spearhead the advertising department. It was Knipe and Berky who became co-owners when Sanborn died in 1947.
The years that followed represented the greatest
period of growth, both for the North Penn Valley and The Reporter. New names appeared in the paper — Cal Craig, columnist Edgar Williams, writers Earl Watson, Jerry Wyckoff, Bob Fretz, and Glenna Anderman, sports editor Charley Myers and photographer Willard Krieble, to name a few.
The 1960s were a revolutionary time for The Reporter. The sports department, under Myers, expanded to as many as five pages on some days and became the paper of record for the Bux-Mont League schools which, in turn, boosted circulation in towns as far away as 20 miles.
Myers also began changing the appearance of The Reporter from within the sports section. He introduced bolder page layouts with larger photographs, bigger headlines and fewer stories per page. When the situation was warranted, he allowed Krieble to use full pages to display his photographic skills.
During this per iod, George Knipe stepped back from full-time editor duties and turned over the daily news operation to Cal Craig, a promotion well earned. Two of his early hires, Janice McCourt and Al Roberts, paid big dividends in the years to follow.
Myers beefed up sports with Don Beideman and Dick Shearer as fulltimers, and Tom Moore, Fretz, Williams, Bob Bloss and Don Bagin as part-timers.
Behind the scenes, Chuck Berky, Howard’s son moved up through the ranks of the
advertising department to become general manager in 1970. On the other side of the management chain, John Skibbe, Knipe’s son-in
law, became general manager of Equitable-owned WNPV Radio which went on the air in 1960.