Portage Daily Register - (608) 745-3500

1640 La Dawn Drive, Portage WI 53901

The Portage Daily Register, in its 125th year in 2011 and founded in 1886, covers Columbia and Marquette counties in Wisconsin. It publishes Monday through Saturday with a print circulation of about 5,000. The Daily Register emphasizes local news and features with coverage of county governments, city governments plus some villages.

S.S. Rockwood and Benjamin F. Goodell started the Daily Register in 1885. The two owned and operated the Wisconsin State Register. It was printed on the second floor and in the basement of 210 W. Cook St. and remained there through 1889. The first Portage Daily Register paper was published March 1, 1886. In 1891, Maurice Goodman purchased an interest in the Register Printing Co. J.H. Waggoner purchased both newspapers in 1892 and edited them until 1894, when he sold it to Maurice Goodman. By 1894, the paper's offices occupied the second floor of 101 W. Cook St.

The Wisconsin State Register and the Portage Daily Register remained under Goodman's management until Arthur A. Porter purchased them in 1908 and served as editor. In February 1908, he moved the offices of the paper to 309 DeWitt St. and completed a new, two-story brick building in August 1908. The offices occupied the second floor, and businesses leased one side of the first floor.

In 1919, the Portage Democrat owned by J.E. Jones was consolidated with the Portage Daily Register. A.A. Porter sold the Wisconsin State Register to P.E. Pinkerton, who sold it to John G. Cary, and Cary also bought the Democrat from Jones. He then combined the two dailies into the Register-Democrat and continued separate publication of the Wisconsin State Register and the Portage Weekly Democrat. A.A. Porter purchased the papers again in 1920. In 1942, he sold them to Comstock Publishing Co. In July 1954, Gladys Porter sold the building as well. In 1942, W.T. Comstock dropped the Democrat and started editing the Portage Daily Register. He ceased publication of the weekly Wisconsin State Register in 1944.

The DeWitt Street building underwent major renovations in 1955 and 1956 when the plate-glass front was filled with stone veneer and glass block windows and the interior was altered to accommodate new equipment. In 1957, Max Lavine purchased the paper from Comstock Publishing. John Lavine became publisher of the paper after his father's death in 1964. He sold the paper to Independent Media Group in 1989. Independent Media Group sold it to Madison Newspapers Inc. in 2000.

Madison Newspapers Inc., doing business as Capital Newspapers, is the current owner. The Daily Register moved its operations to a 30,000-square-foot facility at 1640 LaDawn Drive in the Portage Industrial Park in spring 2003.

Local news focuses on education with extensive coverage of seven school districts in Columbia and Marquette counties and sports coverage centered on high school athletics.
Sports coverage also embraces curling because Portage is home to one of the oldest curling clubs in the state. Pardeeville, south of Portage, also has a curling club and schools in both towns have high school teams.
The city of Portage is a major plastics and glass manufacturing center, while the southern part of Columbia County and parts of Marquette County remain a land of dairy and cash crop farms. Columbia, Sauk, Juneau and Adams intersect at Wisconsin Dells, one of the top tourism destinations in the Midwest.

Contact information (for general news tips, please call 608-745-3500 or 608-745-3517).


NEWSROOM

Main Newsroom: 745-3511 pdr-news@capitalnewspapers.com

Letters to the Editor: pdr-editorial@capitalnewspapers.com

STAFF

EDITOR: Jason Maddux, 608-745-3517, jmaddux@capitalnewspapers.com.

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Michael Thompson covers area business news. 608-745-3510, mthompson@capitalnewspapers.com.

LIFESTYLE EDITOR: Craig Spychalla covers entertainment, human interest and feature stories. 608-745-3516, cspychalla@capitalnewspapers.com.

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Julie Cutsforth is the person to talk to about obituaries, announcements, calendar listings, anniversaries, weddings and engagements. 608-745-3511, jcutsforth@capitalnewspapers.com.

REPORTER: Jen McCoy covers education, military and veterans issues, human interest stories. 608-745-3519, jmccoy@capitalnewspapers.com.

REPORTER: Shannon Green covers public safety and law enforcement issues. 608-745-3504, sgreen@capitalnewspapers.com.

REPORTER: Lyn Jerde covers Columbia County government and area towns and villages. 608-745-3587, ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com.

SPORTS EDITOR: Travis Houslet, 608-745-3518, thouslet@capitalnewspapers.com.

SPORTS REPORTER: Dan Larson, 608-745-3512, dlarson@capitalnewspapers.com.

ADVERTISING

Classifieds: 608-745-3500 or 800-236-2110

Advertising Fax: 608-745-3530

STAFF

Missy Paulson, 608-745-3552

Nancy Moyer, 608-745-3551

Kerry Hilton, 608-745-3527

Marcia Budde, 608-745-3547

Eric Hilton, 608-745-3543

Nicole Foesch, 608-745-3539

Sandy Becker, 608-745-3531

MANAGERS

GENERAL MANAGER: Matt Meyers, 608-745-3571, mmeyers@capitalnewspapers.com

EDITOR: Jason Maddux, 608-745-3517, jmaddux@capitalnewspapers.com

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: Teresa Klinger, 608-745-3565, tklinger@capitalnewspapers.com

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