CONLEY PRINTING HISTORY. . .

Conley Printing, a division of Conley Publishing Group, dates back to 1856 when the Dodge County Citizen was started as a weekly newspaper in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. That was the same year that Beaver Dam was chartered as a city.

During the decades that followed, there were several changes of ownership. In February 1910, E. E. Parker and his son, Harry H. Parker, purchased the Dodge County Citizen. A year later, February 20, 1911, with a circulation of 271, the weekly publication became the Daily Citizen. It has been published daily, six days a week, since that time.
	E.E. Parker

In 1957, Harry H. Parker sold the Daily Citizen to his son, Kenneth Parker, who became the General Manager and Publisher, and to Editors Joseph E. Helfert, A. J. Gocker and Francis W. (Bill) Connors.
	K. Patterson Parker	Harry H. Parker

On January 1, 1970, James Conley and Bill Connors purchased the company from Parker, Helfert and 21 other shareholders. At the time, the Conley Publishing Group had 22 full-time and 5 part-time employees with sales of $456,000.
	Francis W. 'Bill' Connors	James E. Conley Jr.

In September 1971, a new production plant was completed and the newspaper was converted to offset printing. During the next two years, a 28,000-circulation shopper was developed, the Tri-County, and three surrounding weekly publications were purchased, Mayville Shoppers View, Columbus Journal-Republican and the Waupun Leader News.

In 1977, Conley Publishing Group acquired the Ozaukee County Guide, a free distribution 25,000-circulation newspaper in the suburban Milwaukee area. During this period, the CPG also became the central printing plant for several other large central Wisconsin weekly publications.

As Conley Publishing Group's operations grew, Wisconsin retail chains began inserting various printed supplements into its publications.  To meet the printing demands of its advertisers, CPG again expanded in 1978 adding separate printing, stripping, and plate making facilities in Beaver Dam for long run circular printing.  This was the official beginning of a new division, Citizen Printing.

A new “four high” press configuration was developed at the Beaver Dam facility in 1978. The new configuration stacked four vertical printing units together as a single unit. The result was the ability to efficiently and expediently produce high quality four-color printing. Today, this configuration is an industry standard and has been copied by many other press manufacturers.

This new press configuration became even more important for Citizen Printing in the years after its invention. Foreseeing an opportunity in the marketplace, Citizen chose to shift its emphasis away from insert printing in order to fill a niche as a printer for short to medium run-length, national, tabloid sized publications.

The shift in emphasis to tabloid sized publication printing paid off and the Beaver Dam facility was further expanded in 1983.  A 20-acre parcel in the Beaver Dam Industrial Park was purchased (the “Beichl Facility”); and, in May 1990, a 35,000 square foot building was constructed housing another press line.  Gaining a reputation for excellent quality and service Conley’s business continued to prosper at a national level.  In 1994, Citizen held the groundbreaking ceremony for an addition of 35,000 square feet to the Beichl Facility.  

In May of 1997 Conley Publishing Group purchased the Waukesha Freeman a 17,000-copy daily newspaper in Waukesha, WI.  Citizen Printing purchased the Freeman building and attached printing plant.

This plant contains a large Urbanite non-heat set printing press and a complete mailing operation giving Citizen Printing an additional market opportunity.  Citizen currently produces and mails several weekly commercial printing jobs at our Waukesha facility.

Customer demand proved that Beichl was not done growing yet! In June of 2000, Citizen Printing broke ground again for a 96,000 square foot addition that houses a new press line and two computer to plate systems in the now 171,000 square foot facility.  With this addition Citizen Printing is able to serve our customers' need for high-end coated tabloid and standard sized magazines. In April of 2002, Conley Publishing Group sold its Citizen Newspapers division in an effort to increase the focus on commercial printing and publishing in other Conley locations. Currently the printing division employs more than 250 associates and serves the printing needs of more than 80 national publications.

James E. Conley Jr. Chairman, Conley Publishing Group