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The Watertown Daily Times dates back to Nov. 23, 1895, when John W. Cruger and E. J. Schoolcraft formed a partnership for the purpose of publishing a daily newspaper.

 

A number of other weekly publications had been publishing during that early era in Watertown, but none had been daily newspapers.

 

The first edition was four pages and made its way into the public's hands on a Saturday afternoon. That single copy started what are now well over 35,000 consecutive editions without a single missed date.

 

Back in 1919, when the newspaper was a relatively young 24 years of age, John Clifford secured controlling interest in the company. That acquisition began a long history of Clifford family ownership which continues to this day.

John Clifford's tenure as editor and publisher was cut short when he was killed in a car-train accident in Watertown on Christmas Day in 1922.

Following the untimely death of Clifford, the family named longtime employee J. P. Holland as editor and publisher. He led the paper on behalf of the Clifford family from that point until 1932 when John Clifford's son, John D., came to the paper.

John D. was just a year out of journalism school at Marquette University and had spent a year on a weekly newspaper in Shorewood when he was named editor and publisher of the paper. He continued in that capacity until his death in 1987.

John D. Clifford's son, Jim, joined the paper in 1964 and assumed the title of editor and publisher upon his father's death. The fourth generation of the Clifford family, Jim's son, Kevin, joined the company in 1992 and today is serving as the newspaper's associate publisher and general manager.

Managing editor of the newspaper is Tom Schultz who has been with the paper for 47 years, and the controller is Lori Uttech.

The company's senior management team consists of Jim and Kevin Clifford and Tom Schultz.

Today the paper is one of the few remaining daily newspapers in Wisconsin to be family owned. Over the years most independent papers have been sold to large newspaper ownership groups. That trend is continuing today in daily and weekly newspaper markets.

Throughout the over 100 years of its existence, the paper has been a leader in technology changes. In its early years, the paper was published on a flatbed, sheet-fed press.

By 1921 a Goss Duplex press was purchased, dramatically expanding capacity. With that press, the paper was able to print eight pages in one section.

This press continued in operation until 1964 when a huge expansion project was undertaken. The physical facilities were expanded and a Goss Tubular Press was purchased from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram. This expanded the paper's capacity from eight pages per section to 24. In addition, the press had the capability to print one color in addition to black.

The usefulness of that press was short-lived because by the late 1960s the new technology of offset printing and cold type typesetting was taking over the industry.

The production revolution struck the Daily Times in 1971 when all new production equipment was purchased and a new Goss Community offset printing press with a 20-page capacity was installed. For the first time since 1916 the clattering of the Linotype machines was stilled. Those huge machines for the most part were sold for scrap.

The new press signaled the age of full color photographs and one-, two- or three-color advertising.

Seven years later, in 1978, the Daily Times purchased its first computer. Since that first computer purchase, the Times has gone through countless upgrades and new generations of computer equipment. Today the entire newspaper, from photographers to reporters and from editors to production, is routinely completed through the use of powerful computers.

In 2003 the company expanded its press capacity by purchasing a four-color unit which allows full color reproduction on four pages, in addition to the two which were available before the acquisition. The press capacity is now 16 pages with six of them having full color capabilities.

With this capacity the paper publishes full color photography and art on all section fronts and on inside pages as needed for advertisers and/or news.

After months of study, Daily Times management decided on a major change and entered into a contract the Gazette Publishing Company of Janesville, publisher of the Janesville Gazette, to publish the Daily Times and other publications formerly printed in the Times plant in Watertown.

An era ended on Sept. 24, 2011, with the final edition coming off the press in Watertown. Two days later, on Monday, Sept 26, the first edition was printed at Janesville. The new arrangement takes advantage of the state-of-the-art printing facility in Janesville and allows color on all pages of the paper, as needed.

The newspaper is served by the Associated Press news and photography service and various national and international news and features syndicates, in addition to generating a wide variety of local articles and photographs with a full complement of reporters, photographers and editors.

The Daily Times is read by over 25,000 people in the Dodge and Jefferson county areas. It is published afternoons, Monday through Friday, and Saturday mornings. Throughout the year over 300 editions are published and distributed throughout the area.

In addition, the newspaper maintains a website which is updated daily. It can be found at www.wdtimes.com.

Times Publishing Company, the newspaper's parent corporation, also owns the Dodge County Independent News, a weekly newspaper based in Juneau, the Dodge County seat, and Wepco Printing, a local job printing shop in Watertown. It also does extensive amounts of contract printing for local and area publications.