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The Paper of Montgomery County is a daily newspaper located at 201 E. Jefferson Street P.O. Box 272 Crawfordsville, IN which was founded in 2004. It is currently owned by Terry Barker. The editing and publishing process of the newspaper is being handled by Neil Burk and Tim Timmons. A subscription to a print or online version of the newspaper can be purchased.

History
In April 2004, four individuals created a daily newspaper known as The Paper of Montgomery County. During a meeting, Gail Hamilton, Dan Taylor, Barry Lewis, and Tim Timmons discussed on how they would make this plan work for the community. The group felt the concept of local ownership and local responsibility was something vital when it comes to establishing a newspaper company. They also believed that having a locally owned and operated newspaper is something the people needed. Mr. Taylor’s intention was to bring a special group of investors as his objective was to put people into a place who had the mentality to improve the community. It includes a politician named Phil Boots, active community leader Jeff Bannon, a Southmont High School graduate John Roberts, a Nucor Steel employee Steve Stewart, and a North Montgomery graduate Kevin Carpenter. Originally, the six people in Dan’s group, as well as Taylor and Timmons, were the owners and board of directors of the newspaper company. Nucor employee Gary Hammond joined the board later on along with two entrepreneurs Robert Miller and Terry Barker. As the board of directors are working together, the group decided to publish The Paper’s first edition on Thanksgiving 2004. It had a rough start but by the end of 2004, The Paper reached almost 1,000 subscribers which was an astounding accomplishment for any company to do in the beginning.

Changes and Improvement Through the Years
The industry went through important changes in 2007 to help set themselves up as Montgomery County’s leading media as other advertisers started to switch to The Paper instead. It continued to grow once the switch was made to the postal delivery system. Over 500 customers were added before the company grew to 5,000 and more. The Paper’s website also disclosed its first online auction allowing advertisers to sell items online. This trend was so successful that the company continued with the event.

Community Impact
Montgomery County started to get influenced by The Paper in 2005, helping to fulfill one of the mission statements, community involvement. The company promised to impact the community for the better by making a large donation to the Boys & Girls Club. The Paper also contributed to the community by working with the local schools in helping with the basketball tournaments in 2008. As a result, a pattern of donations started to occur as the company included hours for volunteering and donated over $200,000 which impacted the newspaper circulation, growing to almost 4,000.