Family business celebrates 100 years

Not many local family businesses survive for 100 years! In 1925, a young teenager from Kentucky’s Clay County, lacking money for another term in boarding school at Oneida Baptist Institute, left to launch his career. He landed his first paying job with the skills he learned there, setting the “hot lead” type in a Hazard, Kentucky newspaper.  

 He channeled an ability to work hard, a friendly, heartwarming big grin, his innate curiosity, and his business smarts into leading and soon owning his first newspaper. After buying and selling several, he moved to Manchester in the 1950s and quit selling. 

 Despite many technological and societal changes, James Frank Nolan’s family organization has grown steadily three generations later. This year, his family proudly celebrates 100 years in the media business.   

 This newspaper and the eight others in the Nolan group still strive daily to impact the Eastern Kentucky region he loves positively.  And the J. Frank Publishing’s commercial print plant, named after him, prints this publication and over twenty other community newspapers weekly in its London, Kentucky facility. 

 James Frank Nolan Sr. - “Frank” to his friends - passed away in 2007 at age 100. He lived to see his son, James F. Nolan Jr., lead and grow the business for over 30 years, and his grandson, James F. Nolan III, known as Jay, continued “to fight the battle on,” as he described it.

After all these years, given the way technology and the world are changing, some may ask, why continue in the newspaper business?  

 “Because we believe telling the truth and serving others still matters, even today,” says Jay Nolan, Frank’s grandson, now Chairman and CEO of the family’s newspaper group.  “Unlike social media, we are 100% legally accountable for and stand 100% behind every word we publish – both on our news websites and in our printed papers.” 

 Nolan noted the company hires local people who work in their community, many of whom have served the cause faithfully for decades. “We’re locals, often writing about folks we know. So we’re about facts, not “Gotcha!” journalism.” He notes that Nolan Group newspapers still monitor and report to the community about the actions of local governments and their agencies “because they impact our readers’ lives and pocketbooks.”  

 The current Chairman also said the family is deeply thankful for two critical groups: “Our readers and advertisers are patriots because buying ads and buying subscriptions makes it possible for us to communicate the truth, which preserves our democratic values and serves our community. We are deeply thankful for all our readers and advertisers. We can celebrate 100 years because of you!”