The People’s Publisher – Bill Brehm: CEO of Community Newspapers

Cover Stories | Nan Mahon | January 5, 2010 at 12:01 am
When Horace Greenly, editor of the New York Tribune, urged young men to go west in the 1840s, newspaper men followed settlers and gold seekers to the new frontier. They set up offices in mining towns in the foothills above Sacramento. In the 21st Century, those newspapers are no less relevant to the communities they serve than they were before developers moved the growth to their doorstep.
Bill Brehm, CEO of Brehm Communications, Inc., is convinced of the value of local newspapers. His company owns 60 such publications in seven states and eight of them are just east of Sacramento. In addition, he provides printing services through Gold Country Media to publications such as Senior Magazine.”You can’t replace hometown journalism,” he said.
Brehm, age 84, bought his first newspaper in the 1950s, and still goes to work every day at his company’s home office in San Diego. “Newspaper business has been good to me,” he said. “I still come to work and they ask my advice. Sometimes I take an active role.” But journalism, he said, was not what he set out to do.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to parents of German heritage, Brehm recalls the hard days of the Great Depression and a father who refused any kind of welfare even after being laid off from his job with the railroad. The family’s rent of $13 a month was often scraped together and paid in coins mixed with dollars.
Brehm went from high school to the United States Navy in 1943. The military decided to train him as a pilot and sent him to school in Dickinson, North Dakota. “It was so cold my ears froze,” Brehm remembered. “We rubbed them with snow to thaw them out.”
After the war, Brehm’s father advised him 20 21 to stay in the military, but he had his mind made up to become an engineer. He left the service and applied to college, but while he waited for acceptance, on the advice of an aunt, he took a job with a small newspaper. “I swept the floor and hung lead picks on the Linotype machine,” he said. “My pay was $14 a week.”
He became a printer’s devil, sold and drew ads and learned to set wedding invitations. He became a markup man; the equivalent of today’s graphic artist. “I was good at composition because of my math background,” he said. “But what I really liked was selling ads and meeting people.”
As for editorial, he reported on sports but was removed from that job when he went home early from a game and wrote the story with the wrong team winning. “There was a turnaround in the last minutes of the game and the other team won,” Brehm said. “We got phone calls when we published the wrong score.”
In 1946 Bill McGriffin bought the Industrial Post in Bell, California, where Brehm was working. By this time Brehm had decided he liked the newspaper business and he especially liked his boss’s daughter, Mona. Mona and Brehm have been married 64 years and have four children. Three have joined them in the family business; Bill Brehm, Jr runs Brehm Communications, Inc, while one daughter takes care of real estate interests and another is in charge of the newspaper in Yucca Valley. Mona, 85, still comes to work each day as manager of the profit-sharing division.
For Brehm, local journalism serves the people in a personal way. In small towns across America neighborhood newspapers are the pulse of the community. It has always been the small press that kept residents informed of the world around them, the price of beef and decisions of the school board and the city council.
“The news in our papers has to affect the community,” Brehm said, “They reflect activity of the hometown 90 percent. When someone calls our newspapers, a real person answers the phone.” However, traditional journalism is still practiced and both sides of an issue are followed and reported.
In local papers years ago, the publisher was a driving force and a champion in the community they served. Brehm thinks it should still be that way. In 1951, Brehm and his newspapers helped to build a swimming pool for three communities. It is still used today. In Yucca Valley, the newspaper is the spearhead for a 24 acre park in the desert town.
“Our company has an award for any publisher who take on a project that betters their community and will be there for years to come,” said Brehm.
Since he bought his first newspaper and with others since then, Brehm said he would spend time with the old owner. “I paid attention and learned from each of them,” he said. “I have known some fine publishers.”
At one time, Brehm owned 19 newspapers in the South Los Angeles area with a circulation of 300,000. Eventually, he sold them to the Hearst papers. Over the years, Brehm has bought and sold 130 newspapers. “It was not all roses,” he says.
“We had some falls.” Before buying a paper, Brehm does research. In Northern California, he looked where dams were to be built and cities would grow within a two hour drive from a metropolitan area. With that in mind, in 1965, he bought the Auburn Journal, then the River City Business Journal, Folsom Telegraph, Loomis News, Placer Herald, Grass Valley Trader and Colfax Record. “I like to buy in clusters,” he said.
Community newspapers are still profitable, according to Brehm, because there is no local news on the internet or cable television. While the major daily papers fight to stay alive, the hometown paper thrives by reporting on neighborhood issues. “There will always be a place for community newspapers,” Brehm said.
Bill and Mona Brehm

Bill and Mona Brehm

When Horace Greenly, editor of the New York Tribune, urged young men to go west in the 1840s, newspaper men followed settlers and gold seekers to the new frontier. They set up offices in mining towns in the foothills above Sacramento. In the 21st Century, those newspapers are no less relevant to the communities they serve than they were before developers moved the growth to their doorstep.

Bill Brehm, CEO of Brehm Communications, Inc., is convinced of the value of local newspapers. His company owns 60 such publications in seven states and eight of them are just east of Sacramento. In addition, he provides printing services through Gold Country Media to publications such as Senior Magazine.”You can’t replace hometown journalism,” he said.

Brehm, age 84, bought his first newspaper in the 1950s, and still goes to work every day at his company’s home office in San Diego. “Newspaper business has been good to me,” he said. “I still come to work and they ask my advice. Sometimes I take an active role.” But journalism, he said, was not what he set out to do.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to parents of German heritage, Brehm recalls the hard days of the Great Depression and a father who refused any kind of welfare even after being laid off from his job with the railroad. The family’s rent of $13 a month was often scraped together and paid in coins mixed with dollars.

Brehm went from high school to the United States Navy in 1943. The military decided to train him as a pilot and sent him to school in Dickinson, North Dakota. “It was so cold my ears froze,” Brehm remembered. “We rubbed them with snow to thaw them out.”

After the war, Brehm’s father advised him 20 21 to stay in the military, but he had his mind made up to become an engineer. He left the service and applied to college, but while he waited for acceptance, on the advice of an aunt, he took a job with a small newspaper. “I swept the floor and hung lead picks on the Linotype machine,” he said. “My pay was $14 a week.”

He became a printer’s devil, sold and drew ads and learned to set wedding invitations. He became a markup man; the equivalent of today’s graphic artist. “I was good at composition because of my math background,” he said. “But what I really liked was selling ads and meeting people.”

As for editorial, he reported on sports but was removed from that job when he went home early from a game and wrote the story with the wrong team winning. “There was a turnaround in the last minutes of the game and the other team won,” Brehm said. “We got phone calls when we published the wrong score.”

In 1946 Bill McGriffin bought the Industrial Post in Bell, California, where Brehm was working. By this time Brehm had decided he liked the newspaper business and he especially liked his boss’s daughter, Mona. Mona and Brehm have been married 64 years and have four children. Three have joined them in the family business; Bill Brehm, Jr runs Brehm Communications, Inc, while one daughter takes care of real estate interests and another is in charge of the newspaper in Yucca Valley. Mona, 85, still comes to work each day as manager of the profit-sharing division.

For Brehm, local journalism serves the people in a personal way. In small towns across America neighborhood newspapers are the pulse of the community. It has always been the small press that kept residents informed of the world around them, the price of beef and decisions of the school board and the city council.

Located in the Auburn Journal lobby, this LinoType 8 Machine originated in 1886 at the New York Tribune. It operated up to 1974 at the Auburn newspaper.

Located in the Auburn Journal lobby, this LinoType 8 Machine originated in 1886 at the New York Tribune. It operated up to 1974 at the Auburn newspaper.

“The news in our papers has to affect the community,” Brehm said, “They reflect activity of the hometown 90 percent. When someone calls our newspapers, a real person answers the phone.” However, traditional journalism is still practiced and both sides of an issue are followed and reported.

In local papers years ago, the publisher was a driving force and a champion in the community they served. Brehm thinks it should still be that way. In 1951, Brehm and his newspapers helped to build a swimming pool for three communities. It is still used today. In Yucca Valley, the newspaper is the spearhead for a 24 acre park in the desert town.

“Our company has an award for any publisher who take on a project that betters their community and will be there for years to come,” said Brehm.

Since he bought his first newspaper and with others since then, Brehm said he would spend time with the old owner. “I paid attention and learned from each of them,” he said. “I have known some fine publishers.”

At one time, Brehm owned 19 newspapers in the South Los Angeles area with a circulation of 300,000. Eventually, he sold them to the Hearst papers. Over the years, Brehm has bought and sold 130 newspapers. “It was not all roses,” he says.

“We had some falls.” Before buying a paper, Brehm does research. In Northern California, he looked where dams were to be built and cities would grow within a two hour drive from a metropolitan area. With that in mind, in 1965, he bought the Auburn Journal, then the River City Business Journal, Folsom Telegraph, Loomis News, Placer Herald, Grass Valley Trader and Colfax Record. “I like to buy in clusters,” he said.

Community newspapers are still profitable, according to Brehm, because there is no local news on the internet or cable television. While the major daily papers fight to stay alive, the hometown paper thrives by reporting on neighborhood issues. “There will always be a place for community newspapers,” Brehm said.

Nan Mahon

About the author Nan Mahon

Nan Mahon lives in Elk Grove and is both the Cover Story and Senior Spotlight writer for Senior Magazine. She is also the author of Junkyard Blues, a thrilling motorcycle ride through Texas, California and Mexico behind a Vietnam vet running from the drug Cartel.
More posts by Nan Mahon

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