The Clearfield Progress

About The Clearfield Progress

The Clearfield Progress is a daily newspaper published in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, serving Clearfield and the surrounding communities of north-central Pennsylvania. Founded on May 21, 1913, as the successor to the Clearfield Herald, the Progress has published continuously for more than a century, building its identity on the progressive politics of its founding era and on a century of chronicling coal country, small-town government, and community life. Published six days a week from its offices at 236 E. Market Street in downtown Clearfield, the paper is now owned by Community Media Group, which acquired it in 2015. With a circulation reported at about 12,000, it remains one of the larger community dailies in the region, and its website, theprogressnews.com, carries its journalism to readers across Clearfield County and beyond.

History and founding

The Progress was born in the ferment of the Progressive Era. On May 21, 1913, the new daily appeared in Clearfield as the successor to the Clearfield Herald, launched by a group of local business people who installed John Bixler as editor. The paper was from its first day a vehicle for progressive politics — the politics of the "Bull Moosers," Theodore Roosevelt's breakaway Progressive Party, which in Pennsylvania was known for historical reasons as the "Washington Party." The change in ownership and the paper's renewed progressive focus produced an immediate jump in subscribers, suggesting that the market was hungry for a paper willing to take strong editorial positions.

The Progress's early identity was defined as much by what it opposed as by what it supported. In 1913, the paper opposed the re-election of U.S. Senator Boies Penrose, the powerful Pennsylvania Republican political boss — a bold stance for a small-town daily. The Penrose opposition established the paper's reputation as a journalistic insurgent willing to challenge the state's entrenched political machine, and it set the tone for a first decade in which the Progress would be as famous for its controversies as for its news coverage.

The Brumbaugh controversy of 1914

The Progress's combative early years produced one of the most colorful episodes in Pennsylvania journalism history. In 1914, the paper accused Martin Brumbaugh, then a candidate for governor, of having been drunk while touring Clearfield County during his campaign. The accusation had originated with Henry Stough, an anti-liquor activist, and the paper had reported Stough's attack — but editor John Bixler ended up apologizing for reprinting what may have been a false claim. Bixler initially defended the paper's handling, arguing that because the Progress had not made the assertion itself but had merely reported Stough's attack, the event had been correctly reported; Stough, for his part, claimed he had not directly said Brumbaugh was drunk.

The episode, preserved in the historical record of Pennsylvania press controversies, illustrates both the rough-and-tumble character of early twentieth-century small-town journalism and the Progress's willingness to print politically explosive charges. It also showed the limits of that approach: Bixler's apology marked a moment when the paper had to reckon with the difference between reporting an accusation and amplifying one.

Ownership through the decades

After its progressive founding, the Progress settled into long-term local ownership. For more than half of its first century, the paper was owned by W. K. Ulerich, whose long stewardship gave the Progress unusual stability in an industry known for ownership churn. Ulerich's era saw the paper through the Great Depression, World War II, and the postwar transformation of Clearfield County's coal and manufacturing economy. In 1945, publisher G. Albert Stewart used the paper's editorial voice to urge newspapers to support the World War II effort even in the war's final days; Braton Gardner soon succeeded Stewart as publisher, continuing the paper's community leadership into the postwar era.

The paper's ownership changed decisively in 2015, when the Progress was sold to Community Media Group, a publisher of community newspapers headquartered in the Midwest. The sale placed the Progress in a portfolio of small-market papers and ensured its continued operation as an independent community daily rather than absorption into a larger regional chain. More recently, publisher Pat Patterson has led the paper, overseeing its move from its longtime home on East Locust Street to new offices at 236 E. Market Street in Clearfield.

Coverage area

The Progress serves Clearfield, the county seat of Clearfield County, and the surrounding communities of the region its readers and staff call "Progressland." Clearfield County sits in north-central Pennsylvania, a region shaped by bituminous coal mining, lumbering, and manufacturing, and the paper's coverage reflects that heritage: coal and energy issues, the ups and downs of local industry, and the small boroughs and townships that make up the county's civic landscape. The paper covers Clearfield Borough and the county government, the Clearfield Area School District and neighboring districts, and the constellation of smaller communities — Philipsburg, Houtzdale, Curwensville, DuBois's outskirts — that look to Clearfield as their commercial and institutional center.

The paper's newsroom covers the beats essential to a county-seat daily: county commissioners, borough council, school boards, the courts, and the Pennsylvania State Police. Its reporters fan out across the county for everything from festival celebrations to industrial accidents, functioning as the region's wire service for local news.

Print frequency and circulation

The Progress is published six days a week as a broadsheet daily, with a circulation reported at about 12,000 — some business listings have put the figure above 14,000. That makes it one of the larger community dailies in north-central Pennsylvania, with a print footprint that reaches deep into Clearfield County's homes and businesses. The six-day schedule preserves the daily-newspaper rhythm — Monday through Saturday editions — that has defined the paper since 1913.

The paper is published by a privately held company that has employed more than 100 people at its peak, including reporters and correspondents assigned to gather local news throughout the region. Its classified and display advertising sections have long been a commercial hub for the county, connecting local businesses with the readers who shop, hire, and sell within Progressland.

Digital presence

The Progress publishes online at theprogressnews.com, where it posts local news, sports, obituaries, and community content alongside its print coverage. The website extends the paper's reach beyond the print delivery area, serving former residents, commuters, and anyone with ties to Clearfield County. Like most community dailies, the Progress has built its digital operation around the content its print readers already value: breaking local news, high school sports, police and court reports, and the obituary pages that draw some of the site's heaviest traffic.

The paper's digital archive is also a draw for researchers. More than 137,000 searchable pages of the Progress from 1920 through 1976 are available through newspaper archive services, making the paper's twentieth-century run one of the better-documented small-city newspaper archives in Pennsylvania. For genealogists and historians, that archive is a window into a century of coal-country life.

Community role

For more than a century, the Progress has been the institution that tells Clearfield County its own story. The paper covers the rituals of small-town life — graduations, homecomings, church picnics, volunteer fire company fundraisers — with the same seriousness it brings to county budgets and criminal trials. Its sports pages chronicle the Clearfield Bison and the county's other high school teams, and its community pages record the milestones of generations of families. The paper's 110th anniversary in 2023 was marked by the Clearfield County Historical Society with a retrospective on the paper's founding, a sign of how deeply the Progress is woven into the county's sense of itself.

The paper has also played the watchdog role its progressive founders envisioned. From its 1913 opposition to Senator Penrose to its modern coverage of county government and public spending, the Progress has treated accountability journalism as part of its mandate — a stance that has occasionally made it controversial but has kept it relevant.

The Negative Project and historical preservation

One of the most remarkable chapters in the Progress's recent history involves not its journalism but its archives. For much of its century-plus run, the paper's photographers shot on film and carefully preserved their negatives, storing them in the attic of the former Progress building on East Locust Street in downtown Clearfield. Over the decades the collection grew immense — a visual history of Clearfield County spanning generations.

When the Progress moved to its new location on East Market Street, publisher Pat Patterson recognized the collection's importance and offered to donate it to the Clearfield County Historical Society for preservation. Board member Julie Houston of Morrisdale began scanning the old negatives and publishing them on the society's "Negative Project" social media page, where the photographs quickly found an audience of thousands of viewers from across the country. The images — schoolchildren, parades, factory floors, Main Street scenes — tell the visual story of Progressland in a way no written archive can. The project stands as a model of how a community newspaper's archive can become a public treasure when its publisher chooses preservation over disposal.

Obituaries and public notices

The Progress's obituary pages are among its most-read sections, serving as the official record of deaths across Clearfield County. Funeral homes throughout the region route their notices through the paper, and the obituaries — published in print and online — are the first thing many residents read each day. The paper also publishes the legal notices, estate advertisements, and sheriff's sales required by Pennsylvania law, fulfilling the public-record function that remains central to a county-seat daily's mission and revenue.

Outlook

The Progress enters its second century with the advantages of deep local roots and stable ownership. Its 2015 acquisition by Community Media Group placed it with a publisher focused on community newspapers rather than asset-stripping, and its move to modern offices on East Market Street signaled investment in its future. The paper's challenge mirrors that of every American community daily: converting a loyal print readership into sustainable digital revenue while continuing to staff the local newsroom that makes it indispensable.

With a circulation of about 12,000 in a county of roughly 80,000 people, the Progress reaches a remarkable share of its market — a penetration rate that national and regional outlets can only envy. As long as Clearfield County needs someone to cover its commissioners, its courts, its classrooms, and its ballfields, the Progress has a mission. Its progressive founders would likely recognize the paper's modern watchdog reporting as the continuation of the insurgent spirit they brought to Clearfield in May 1913.