About

VALLEY VIEW – The Citizen-Standard Newspaper has a long-standing tradition of providing local news coverage to its valued readers long before the name: The Citizen-Standard.

Today The Citizen Standard is owned by Sample News Group LLC who owns and operates community newspapers in 6 states, printing over 75 newspaper publications with over 650,000 circulation.  Our offices are located at 104 West Main St in Valley View Pa.  Our paper is printed weekly and is distributed on Thursdays.

The Sample News Group, LLC, was founded by George Raymond Sample, Jr.  also known as George “Scoop” Sample and his wife Marlene.

The Citizen-Standard serves upper Dauphin county, lower Northumberland county and western Schuylkill County and the seven school districts located in that footprint: Tri-Valley, Pine Grove, Williams Valley, Upper Dauphin, Millersburg, Halifax and Line Mountain.

The Citizen-Standard currently employs  Rebecca Zemencik, Editor/Sales Executive, Lori Sulouff, Office Assistant/Sales Executive; Robert Wheary, Staff Writer/Sports Writer.

 

Our past:

The Valley View Citizen Printing Co. was formed in 1929 when J. Melvin Bolton and his wife, Esther D. Bolton, moved to Valley View from Elizabethville to form the company.

The Valley View Citizen Printing Co. published weekly newspapers, the Valley Citizen and the Herndon News. The publications covered news and events in northern Dauphin County, western Schuylkill County and lower Northumberland county, much as The Citizen-Standard still does today.

The Boltons eventually turned over operations to their daughter and son-in-law, Ruth and Roland B. McRoberts of Hegins, who published the Valley Citizen and the Herndon News until they sold the publications on October 1, 1973.

According to an article published in The News-Item, Shamokin, September 27, 1973, sale of The Valley Citizen and Herndon News to a new corporate group composed of executives of News Publishing and Printing Company of Shamokin has been announced by Roland and Ruth McRoberts, publishers of the two weekly newspapers serving the Valley View and Herndon area.

Effective date of the sale is October 1, 1973. The newspaper office will remain at 1011 West Main Street, Valley View.

Under the new setup, the two weekly newspapers will be combined into one publication to be known as The Valley Citizen & Herndon News. The paper will be printed by photo-offset  in the new production plant of News Publishing and Printing Company in Shamokin.

Principals of the new company are John H. Reid, president; Michael T. Zyla, vice-president and M. Philip Yucha, secretary and treasurer.

By August, 1975, business was booming for the Valley Citizen Co., an affiliate of News Publishing and Printing Co., Shamokin, as company officials announced the purchase of the Lykens Standard, a weekly newspaper in Dauphin County.

At this point, the Valley Citizen Co., was publishing The Valley Citizen, a weekly located in Hegins-Valley View. Principals of the company were still Reid, Zyla and Yucha. Reid also served as president of News Publishing and Printing Co., the parent firm, which owned The News-Item in Shamokin.

The Lykens Standard was purchased from Lynn E. Hand, a Lykens businessman, on August 1. Hand planned to continue operation of a commercial printing shop in the Lykens location.

Shortly after the purchase of The Standard, Lykens, a special announcement was published in the August 19, 1975, edition of The Valley Citizen and The Standard, Lykens, announcing the merger of both publications to form one publication entitled The Citizen-Standard.

“In an effort to publish a modern weekly newspaper which will provide a wider range of community news, sports coverage, and special features in the Tri-Valley area, a decision was reached to combine the Valley Citizen and The Standard,” (an excerpt taken from an advertisement published in the August 19, edition of The Valley Citizen.)

The first edition of The Citizen-Standard rolled off the press on Wednesday, September 10, 1975. Although the location of the office has changed since that time, the name has remained the same.

The current Citizen-Standard office is located at 104 W. Main Street in Valley View. This location has been home to The Citizen-Standard since 1984. According to an article published in The Citizen-Standard Business Review edition, March 28, 1984, a contract had been awarded to James Rissinger & Sons Contractors, Dalmatia R.D.1, for construction of a new Citizen-Standard office building. According to the article, Rissinger outbid nine other contractors for rights to construct the 2,000-square-foot office building on Route 25. The office was set for occupancy by August, 1984.

Over the past 25 years The Citizen-Standard has changed hands several times. Some of the owners have included Thompson’s News Service, Times-Shamrock, and it’s current day owners Sample News Group.