Jennifer Benninger

Today's Times News newspaper can trace its history back over 120 years to the Mauch Chunk Daily Times established in 1883. In 1968 Pencor purchased the Lansford Record and in 1971 acquired the circulation of the Evening Courier published in Tamaqua. The combined newspapers published under the banner of the Times News Record and Courier until 1971 when the name was changed to the Times News. Pencor Services founder Claude Reinhard, a pioneer in cable television, was a person of keen foresight in the communications industry. He grew the Times News into the primary newspaper source for Carbon County, while also serving portions of Schuylkill, Lehigh, Monroe, and Northampton counties. In September 1987 the Times News entered the weekly newspaper business when it purchased the East Penn Free Press published in Emmaus. Through the next two decades more weekly newspapers were started serving school districts in the Allentown and Bethlehem areas. They include the East Penn Press, Parkland Press, the Whitehall-Coplay Press, the Northwestern Press, the Northampton Press, the Salisbury Press, the Catasauqua Press, and the Bethlehem Press. These 8 papers form the The Press Publishing Group of Weekly Newspapers. These newspapers as well as the Times News are printed at the TN Printing complex located on Blakeslee Boulevard, four miles West of Lehighton.