Timmons bestowed industry honor

Publisher of The Paper tabbed top media professional

By JOHN O. MARLOWE

For The Paper

When the doors to Sagamore News Media opened almost 20 years ago, publisher Tim Timmons had a sign above his door. It was a quote from the auto racing industry that simply read, we don’t show up at a race to lose.

One might read that and consider it cocky. Timmons didn’t. He knew there was no guarantee of success with the new venture. But he also knew that winning teams never entered a competition with lesser expectations. Despite critic after critic and prediction after prediction saying the new company wouldn’t get off the ground, or wouldn’t last two years, the little paper that could as Timmons called it has grown and morphed into Sagamore news Media, a company with two daily newspapers in Montgomery and Hamilton counties.

That achievement, in addition to almost half a century in the media, led Editor & Publisher Magazine to include Timmons in its 2022 class of top executives, whose creativity and daring are making a difference in the media. The “25 Over 50” list was published in the national magazine’s September issue.

“I am humbled beyond words,” said Timmons. “Editor & Publisher Magazine is the beacon of our industry, and to add me to its class of 25 Over 50 is a recognition of two things: 1) that I’ve been doing this a long time, and 2) people identify that we are taking chances and doing things differently here.”

It’s not the first time Timmons has been honored in similar fashion.

In the 1990s, he was included in Presstime Magazine’s annual “20 Under 40,” a similar listing with this one focusing on media people under the age of 40 making a difference on the national scene. In addition, Timmons’ writing has been honored at the national level by The Associated Press and others.

Timmons, 65, has spent 50 years in the media industry, starting as a high school correspondent for the Indianapolis News. He is now the CEO of Sagamore News Media, and steers the operations of media outlets in Noblesville and Crawfordsville as publisher.

The vantage point gives him a perspective on both the challenges and rewards of an industry in dynamic flux.

“It’s such an interesting time. There’s no doubt of the danger, yet there is opportunity as well. I think the biggest danger lies in trying to continue operating as traditional newspapers,” Timmons told E&P.

“We face stout competition in each of our markets, yet the pressures are not coming from the outside. Our biggest challenge to staying relevant is right here in our hands –– our cell phones.

“Social media has changed news coverage. In the old days, we would send a reporter and photographer out to the interstate when there was a big wreck. But now, that wreck is being tweeted or posted within minutes, even seconds, on social media. No one is waiting to read about it the next day. While that doesn’t mean we ignore it, it should mean we don’t present it as breaking news the next day when it’s 20-something hours old.”

The key to weathering the change, Timmons believes, is to venture into new ideas, but do so while always keeping the trust of the people who continue to support newspapers.

“Content is king, as they say, and we are trying to provide our readers with information and stories that they can’t get anywhere else. No, we’re not going to start publishing stories or videos about cute kittens or epic fail videos, but we also don’t want to fill our pages and web sites with boring stories no one wants to read.”

A husband of almost 40 years, as well as a father of two adult girls and grandfather of eight, Timmons directs his remaining attention to his other family –– newspapers.

The Paper of Montgomery County started as an idea on a piece of paper in 2004 and The Noblesville Times has been around since Theodore Roosevelt was in office. Both are the oldest locally owned newspapers in their respective markets. They are the flagship publications of Sagamore New Media, which also publishes other ancillary periodicals.

It’s definitely a job that keeps him moving.

“I think I’ve burned through four sets of tires shuttling between Crawfordsville and Noblesville alone,” laughed Timmons, who guesses he knows the State Road 32 corridor by heart, now. “It has been toughest on my wife Linda. It’s not like I have set hours. There’s been plenty a night when supper’s gone cold and I’m not home, yet. And she’s a good cook!”

What keeps him so busy?

“In our small company, I take out the trash, type briefs, sell ads,” Timmons told E&P, “just like everyone who owns a small newspaper does.”

It didn’t used to be that way for Timmons, though. The newspaperman made stops in Lafayette, Odessa (Texas), Burlington (North Carolina), Lake County (California), Seymour, South Bend and Crawfordsville. Before forming Sagamore New Media with a group of local owners, Timmons was general manager of the South Bend Tribune.

He also is a published author. A management book Timmons wrote came out in 2004 (Coaching Success, Bristol Publishing).

It’s been a long and successful career. Like anyone, Timmons looks back some, but he keeps moving forward.

“At my age, now, I sometimes wonder what life would be like if I had just stayed put –– I know Linda does,” he says with a chuckle. “I was offered the opportunity to be a columnist at a major metropolitan newspaper years ago. At the same time, I was offered an opportunity to move into upper management. Both were great moves and I’ve never believed you should second-guess decisions made. My grandpa told me that once you decide something, make it the right choice.”

Making choices, some bold, often epitomizes Timmons’ decision-making. It is integral to a career that has literally taken him from coast to coast. It is the bedrock for what he does, today, and ultimately led to the honor from the magazine.

Editor & Publisher has covered the media industry for more than 130 years, first appearing in 1884. Each year, the periodical’s “Over Fifty” feature selects leaders for “their strong work ethic, transformational mindsets, commitment to journalistic and publishing excellence and their ability to lead during challenging times,” according to their website.

Timmons still enjoys his career, and believes in it wholeheartedly, although it may look different in the future than it does, today.

“In our company, the vast majority of our readers subscribe to our daily online editions, but we have to be aware that won’t last forever. At this point, an online edition is probably just a transitory product to whatever the next thing is. We have an opportunity to reinvent ourselves into media companies that connect to our communities in ways we’ve never done before. And if we do, our future looks pretty good.”

In that future, Timmons recognizes that the media is nothing without the people –– people to read and view; people who make the news; and the professionals who share their stories.

“It’s like a quarterback who is honored in some way,” Timmons said. “They wouldn’t be there if not for the offensive line and the team around them. We have a great group of people in our company, both today and those who have been a part of the first two decades. If not for them, things like this wouldn’t happen.”

Timmons told E&P something similar.

“I treasure the letters, notes, emails and calls I get here and there from people I used to work with who say that I helped them in some way,” Timmons said. “I’m not sure who helped who the most, but our industry needs talented people.”

Like the sign above the door says, they didn’t show up to lose. Despite the decades’ old gloom and doom predictions, it’s a race they’re still running.