SANDUSKY — If it’s a marriage made in heaven—or something closer to a corporate takeover—it might forestall the risk of the Firelands region and Lorain County both becoming news deserts.
Owners at Ogden Newspapers, including CEO Bob “Bottom-Line Bob” Nutting and top-level managers, aren’t commenting on whether the contract printing arrangement between the newspaper chain that owns the Sandusky Register and the independent owners of The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria could eventually lead to a broader buyout.
It’s been three years since The Chronicle-Telegram moved its printing to Findlay, where Ogden owns The Courier, idling the printing presses in the city of 53,000 people for the first time in a century. About two-thirds of the paper’s 80,000-square-foot facility near Public Square—at East Avenue and Third Street in downtown Elyria—was idled in the move. Today, the daily Chronicle is printed four times a week, Wednesdays through Saturdays, at Ogden’s press operation in Findlay alongside the chain’s other regional papers and contract work for independent publishers.
The CT has been downsizing for years but is struggling more than ever to keep the doors open, according to employees and some former employees. There have been layoffs across departments, including the newsroom, but no recent official announcements from the newspapers publisher, Bill Hudnutt.
In addition to the Register and the Courier, Ogden owns roughly 15 newspapers across Ohio, including the Norwalk Reflector, the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune, the Fostoria Review-Times, and the Warren Tribune-Chronicle. In 2019, the company acquired the masthead ownership rights and subscriber list of the defunct Youngstown Vindicator, operating it out of its newsroom in Warren. It has about 60 newspapers across the country, from Hawaii to Connecticut.
Newspapers stay on QT
Jeremy Speer, an Ohio regional publisher, and John McCabe, a senior editor with Ogden, both did not respond to inquiries about the future of the newspapers. The Nutting family and corporate leadership rarely respond to press inquiries.
Bob Nutting earned the moniker “Bottom-Line Bob” from fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Major League Baseball franchise his family controls and where he serves as chairman. He earned the reputation among sports journalists and fans alike for prioritizing corporate profit margins over on-field performance.
After the Nutting family acquired majority ownership of the Pirates in 2007, the franchise became infamous for maintaining some of the lowest player payrolls in professional baseball while maximizing revenues, trading away star players before paying market value, and operating with extreme frugality—a management philosophy centered strictly on financial efficiency over winning.
Squeezer
That same financial austerity transformed local newsrooms across Ohio. In 2006, the Sandusky Register employed roughly 140 people alongside dozens of part-timers, contractors, and local carriers, supported by a 25-person newsroom. Today, the entire operation employs around a dozen people across reporting, editing, and customer service.
While staff still work out of the historic Register building in downtown Sandusky, they occupy only a fraction of the space bustling with activity a decade ago. Ogden purchased the Register and the Reflector in 2019 from the Rau-White family, who had owned them for 150 years, subsequently shutting down the Sandusky press in 2020 and shifting production to Findlay. The building was sold two years ago and is being transformed into a retail and residential facility.
The Register and Reflector were historically stronger financially than most peer dailies because together they built a dominant digital presence under strong focused leadership in the publisher’s office. Between 2006 and 2017, the news team generated 1 billion total page views, the Register averaging about 7 million page views per month at its peak. That success was aggressively and successfully monetized. The Register was also well known for its aggressive, award winning reporting on local and state issues.
Shine the light
Yet as legacy print models are stripped for real estate and consolidated into regional printing hubs, the future of local reporting depends on independent, community-funded models that aren’t accountable to out-of-state corporate bottom lines. Platforms like StayTunedSandusky.com represent the necessary evolution of local journalism: aggressive, agile investigative reporting focused entirely on municipal accountability, public records, and direct community engagement without corporate oversight.
To keep truly independent, uncompromising local journalism alive in Sandusky and across the Firelands region, reader support is essential. Consider subscribing, sharing our investigations, and contributing directly to sustain real investigative reporting where you live.
When a region collapses into a news desert, the immediate casualty is municipal accountability. Without independent journalists scrutinizing local government agendas, tracking tax dollars, and sitting through late-night zoning meetings, public institutions operate in the dark, leading to measurable spikes in local government corruption, bloated municipal budgets, and higher borrowing costs for taxpayers. Beyond the policy vacuum, the loss of a shared factual record fractures civic engagement; local elections see plummeting voter turnout, misinformation spreads unchecked across social media algorithms, and residents lose the collective narrative that binds a community together. Ultimately, a news desert leaves a city without a watchdog to protect its interests or a mirror to reflect its voice.
For sale: The Chronicle-Telegram Building
225 East Avenue in downtown Elyria, the property is a major industrial and office complex with high regional visibility.
Property Specs/pricing
Size: Approximately 79,851 square feet spanning a 1st floor, 2nd floor office area, and basement storage, situated on 2.64 acres.
List Price: Originally brought to market at $4,495,000, the asking price has since been reduced across commercial real estate platforms to $1,985,000.
Built-In Income Opportunity: Marketing materials heavily feature a proposed sale-leaseback agreement. The paper’s parent company (Lorain County Printing & Publishing) intends to lease back approximately 28,000 square feet of office space long-term, providing an immediate, steady stream of rental income to the buyer.
Key Building Features/infrastructure
Industrial & Flex Capability: Includes 28,429 SF of warehouse space featuring 18’-to-23’ clear ceiling heights, 2 loading docks, 1 drive-in door, and 8 box-truck doors.
Utilities & Power: Outfitted with high-power 3-phase electrical service (3,000 Amps, 480V) and a heavy-duty backup Caterpillar generator.
Storage & Access: Includes a 20,348 SF basement equipped with a freight elevator, along with over 93 dedicated parking spaces.
Marketing Models/suggested uses
The commercial brokers and the City of Elyria have marketed the building through several primary repositioning angles:
Flex / Light Manufacturing & Warehousing: High ceiling heights and loading dock infrastructure are framed as turnkey assets for regional distribution, assembly, or light industrial users taking advantage of quick access to I-90 and the Ohio Turnpike.
Multi-Tenant Commercial Hub: The floor plan’s distinct lobbies, executive office suites, kitchenettes, and multiple restrooms allow an investor to easily partition the non-newspaper sections into multi-tenant office or flex rentals.
Synergy with Downtown Redevelopment (”Forge 417”): Marketing highlights the property’s proximity (just one block away) to the $13 million “Forge 417” Downtown Elyria Revitalization project. That neighboring development focuses on mixed-use apartments, retail, restaurants, and a regional Esports tournament venue, positioning 225 East Avenue as a prime candidate for supportive commercial, tech, or residential-mixed redevelopment.
Tax Incentives: Promoted as sitting directly within a designated Enterprise Zone and Business Incentive Program district, offering potential property tax abatements to developers willing to renovate.