The end of an era.
The following is by T.J. HUBBARD – December 13, 2025
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Dec. 14, 1891 — Dec. 13, 2025
I’ve had to write some difficult obituaries in my 50 years: my grandmother Janet’s in 2015, my father Jon’s in 2023 — and now the Bellefontaine Examiner’s, as the business permanently closes with the publication of its final edition today after 135 years of service to the Logan County community.
The decision to close the Examiner was unquestionably one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make. It’s the kind of decision you seek God’s guidance on, and for me, the answer He ultimately returned brought a sense of peace and clarity I hadn’t known in a long time.
The newspaper business has been labeled a “dying industry” since before I rejoined the Examiner staff as assistant general manager in 2005, after working in the mailroom in the early 1990s. I realized early in my tenure that I might one day have to make this decision. That didn’t make it any easier.
There is no way to write all that should be written in one story or accounting that could fully capture the tale of five generations of continuously Hubbard family–owned businesses and publications serving this community for more than a century and a half.
Although we usually reference the Examiner’s 135 years as a daily publication, the Hubbard family’s roots in the newspaper business here stretch even farther back. We’ve covered more than half of the nation’s presidents, beginning with the 18th, Ulysses S. Grant, when Thomas A. Hubbard Sr. founded The Weekly Examiner in 1871. His sons, E.O. and H.K. Hubbard, later launched The Daily Examiner on Dec. 14, 1891. The newspaper’s title changed to Bellefontaine Examiner in 1949, when identifying papers with the county seat they served was important.
The business moved into the newly built printing and office facility at 127 E. Chillicothe Ave. the year I was born — 1975 — from its previous location at 130–136 Court St. Editions were printed at the Chillicothe Avenue facility until Oct. 31, 2000, when printing operations moved to a centralized printing facility in Marysville used by four area daily newspapers at the time. Since January 2008, the Examiner has been printed by the Findlay Courier.
The business remained on Chillicothe Avenue until August 2024, when the office moved to 1213 W. Sandusky Ave., before relocating this July to our current and final home at 717 S. Main St.
Burying the lede is a cardinal sin in newspaper writing, but I’ve always told people I consider myself a mediocre writer at best. That said, the first and most important point of this “end of an era” story is to express heartfelt gratitude — on behalf of myself and the Hubbard family — to all the Examiner readers, current and former staff, advertisers, news and sports contributors, delivery carriers, local post offices, and countless others who contributed to the Examiner’s many years of success and remarkable longevity.
My current staff deserves special recognition. They’ve endured the most difficult final days of this paper’s life cycle with an abundance of grace and professionalism. I wish nothing but the best to Steve Smith, Mandy Loehr, Jim Strzalka, April Redmond, Heather Hart, and Mike Frank. Thanks also to our freelance writers and contributors — Sharyn Kopf, Tom Stephens, and Joel Mast — and our delivery carriers and drivers, Natasha Fissel, Mike Strayer, and Tabby Roberts.
To those who came before me in this family legacy business — my grandparents, Tom and Janet, and my dad, Jon — thank you for paving the way. The relationships you built and the way you conducted yourselves when you operated the Examiner opened doors for me and helped keep the paper going years after you passed.
A few funny and interesting things about the Hubbards who came before me:
My grandpa, former owner and publisher Tom Hubbard, started as a cub reporter at the Examiner in 1931; he covered the grand opening of the Holland Theatre that year. He devoted his life to the paper, working and building the family business for 70 years, before passing away in 2001.
In the early 1930s, Tom was covering a Bellefontaine–Urbana football game in Urbana that devolved into a brawl involving players, spectators, and reporters. As Grandpa (five-foot-nothing on a tall day) told it, a six-foot-plus, 200-pound Urbana policeman grabbed him off a pile of people in the melee and told him, “Get your ass out of here and don’t come back.” Bellefontaine didn’t play Urbana for several years after that incident.
Grandpa also has the distinction of possibly hitting the longest drive in the history of the Logan County Country Club. I can’t remember the hole number, but on an errant tee shot on the hole parallel to the train tracks, his ball landed in a passing coal car and continued on for perhaps hundreds of miles afterward.
Tom loved the Logan County Fair like no other. Opening day each year was simultaneously Grandpa’s favorite, while the staff dreaded the tremendous extra workload the event created. I can tell you firsthand, the paper lost money during fair week for many years as the overtime expenses outpaced ad revenue. Nevertheless, we tried to honor Grandpa by always trying to cover well the event he so adored.
He was sports editor in 1943 when he was drafted at age 37 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. While he served as a gun controller aboard the U.S.S. Core, his future wife, Janet, took over sports editor duties in his absence — making her one of the first female sports editors in Ohio.
Janet learned to cover baseball and record stats from Walter Alston, who was a coach and educator in Washington Township in the 1940s. Alston went on to manage the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1954 to 1976. A plaque dedicating the Indian Lake High School gym in his honor hangs in the gym. Grandma loved sports, and even well into her 80s routinely filled out two brackets during the NCAA basketball tournament.
In 2006, Grandma accepted the prestigious First Families of Ohio Newspapers Award presented by the Ohio Newspaper Association on behalf of the Examiner. In accepting the award, she said, “I love newspaper people.” She was spot-on. I’ve met some wonderful colleagues in this business. Some are still going, some have moved on, and some have passed on, but I truly appreciate the opportunity to have met so many smart and talented operators who have a passion for newspapers.
When we received the award, the running inside joke at the time was that recipients would soon go out of business after getting it. Thankfully, we were able to avoid that unpleasant outcome for several years. Special thanks to my wife, Hollie Pope Hubbard, her parents, Ron and Pam, and many of their family and friends who have helped the newspaper in countless ways over the past few years. Their support has been invaluable.
To my mother, Cathie — who helped my dad and me behind the scenes for decades to “keep the ink flowing” — you are appreciated beyond measure. I’d also like to acknowledge my brother, Bill Harris; my aunt and uncle, Debbie and Pat Ellis; and members of the Ellis and Phil Pulfer families who contributed content, ideas, and assistance to the paper over the years.
The Examiner has been blessed with many dedicated and talented associates over the decades — some of whom spent entire careers with the paper. I’m too young to have known them all, but my family and I owe them immensely. Not many days pass that I don’t think of former staff members we’ve lost. Dave Wagner, Gene Marine, and Byron Scott are among those some of you may remember fondly as well.
A big thanks to the Findlay Courier staff who have printed the Examiner for the past 18 years, first under the Heminger family’s ownership and later under Ogden Newspapers, Inc. Former publisher Karl Heminger and current publisher Jeremy Speer no doubt solved more problems and endured more headaches than I will ever know to keep our product — and many others — printed well and on deadline.
The Examiner outlasted many rival publications over the years. Striving to be first, best, and most accurate is as old as the news business itself. What’s different today is the explosion of cheaper-to-operate digital media formats — not to mention increased competition for advertising dollars, from one guy selling restaurant-menu ads to Facebook, digital billboards, and countless other options.
I’d be remiss not to acknowledge our competitors at 98.3 WPKO/WBLL. Lou Vito and Chad Wilkinson — you gentlemen are good at your craft, and I hope you and your staff continue providing local news and information for years to come.
No doubt I have left out many who deserve thanks. Please forgive any oversight; there are simply too many to name.
Today’s media landscape often takes heat for pushing the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality in a relentless 24/7 news cycle. I feel the Examiner has done a decent job, however, balancing positive and negative news. I share the concern many of you likely have about how readily people give credibility to news from social media sources. It’s not that some of these sources aren’t credible — but as former editor Miriam Baier used to remind our newsroom, “What ax do they have to grind?” My dad phrased it another way: “Be careful not to drink the Kool-Aid.”
Our local institutions and agencies aren’t perfect — and there are “bad apples” in every profession — but I believe many good people work every day to better this community. I am especially encouraged by our local law enforcement agencies — police and sheriff — both of which I feel have stronger leadership today than when I first started.
Grandpa Tom used to say something like: if you don’t like someone or think they’re doing a bad job, just wait — it’ll change. He wasn’t wrong. I’ve seen many people come and go in 20 years; positions change, new people are elected. It has been our privilege to serve generations of Logan Countians — to share your successes, triumphs, and some of your most difficult moments. I’m proud of the fact that some of the stories we published over the years helped save and improve lives — whether by raising awareness about hazards or a community member’s urgent medical needs, sharing the need for organ donors, or helping prevent others from encountering dangerous predators because of our reporting.
There will always be great stories to tell — even if the Examiner is no longer the one telling them — about the people and events of this remarkable community. I’ve always been in awe that a place as small as Logan County produces more than its share of talented, resilient, and genuinely extraordinary people.
According to various sources, the Examiner was in a rare class. It was among only about 1,100 businesses out of roughly 36.4 million currently operating in the U.S. that have been continuously owned and operated by a single family for a century or more. That’s equivalent to 0.003 percent.
Things like that don’t happen by accident — they happen because of long-sustained community support.
God bless you — and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything.
