About Us
THE BARRE-MONTPELIER TIMES ARGUS – SINCE 1897
We are a local 5-days a week newspaper based in Barre, Vermont owned and operated by Brunswick Publishing, LLC. We deliver print newspapers Tuesday through Saturday in Washington, Orange and Lamoille counties.
OUR MISSION
To serve our customers and our community by providing indispensable, timely, accurate and relevant information. To foster debate, critical thinking, a spirit of independence, civic responsibility and a vibrant community. To cultivate a team of exceptional people in a dynamic and rewarding workplace.
OUR VISION:
To serve our communities as the independent, trusted voice of Vermont.
Times Argus History
The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus is the product of a merger of the Montpelier Evening Argus and the Barre Daily Times in 1959. At that time, a family member of the Argus founder Hiram Atkins sold to the Times owners as the Argus was in financial difficulty.
The Barre Times was founded by Frank E. Langley, a printer from Wilmot, New Hampshire. Langley and his wife printed the paper out of their house, with a news policy of "Barre first and the rest of the world after." The first edition came out on March 16, 1897 and cost one cent. Langley's son remembered playing on the floor while Mrs. Langley set type in their Barre home.
In 1917 Langley encouraged his employees to become partners, and upon his death in 1938 six men became shareholders, including Alex Walker. Walker bought out his partners in 1958, and purchased the Montpelier Evening Argus on August 29, 1959. The first Barre-Montpelier Times Argus was published on August 30, 1959.
The Argus was struggling financially when it was purchased, working with an antiquated press and a dilapidated building (the Times Argus had at one time a Montpelier office in the same building that once housed the Argus, at 112 Main Street in Montpelier. Currently the former office is a retail storefront).
Founded as the weekly Argus-Patriot in 1863 by Hiram Atkins, the Argus became a daily on October 30, 1897. The first edition cost one cent, and included this proposition: "...know how to make a newspaper, and one which will merit the name and prove a credit to the city of Montpelier." By then it was owned by Atkins' son Morris, who assumed ownership when his father died in 1893. Morris Atkins passed on the newspaper to his daughter Elaine in the 1940s. At that time the newspaper had an all-female reporting staff due to World War II. One of those women, Doris Jones, started at the Argus in 1945 and was employed by the newspaper until 1995.
In 1959 the newspaper was bought by Walker, who then sold the combined newspaper to Robert W. Mitchell and Gene Noble, owners of the Rutland Herald, in 1963. In 1979, Robert's son R. John became publisher of the Times Argus. Mitchell and his son R. John bought out the Noble family in 1986.
In 2016 the Times Argus and Rutland Herald were sold to Reade Brower of Maine and Charles "Chip" Harris of New Hampshire. Earlier in the year both papers had cut back their publication frequency from a daily cycle to four days per week. Brower and Harris then sold the papers to George R. "Scoop" Sample III and the Sample News Group in April of 2018. The Sample group operates the Herald and Times Argus under the umbrella company Brunswick Publishing, LLC.
