THE UNION WELCOMES NEW PUBLISHER

Beginning Feb. 1, Chad Wingo took over as publisher for the local paper which was established in 1864. Wingo has worked for The Union in advertising sales for 10 years and is committed to serving the community of the area he calls home.

“I started with The Union in July of 2013,” Wingo said. “I was hired on in advertising and have managed accounts for the (paper) since then. The last six years I have been business development manager and the last year, director of business development and marketing. Then I was promoted to publisher officially on Wednesday, Feb. 1.”

Aside from his many hours spent in The Union's offices, Wingo is co-owner of Grass Valley Brewing Company. His desire to travel down that path has everything to do with how much he loves his adopted hometown.

“I want people to know that I am committed and involved in this community,” Wingo said. “Neither my wife nor I are originally from here but we both consider this our hometown. Our children were born here. We both work for very involved organizations in this area, and we are co-owners of a business that we decided to put downtown so that it would have a beneficial impact to other businesses.”

Wingo's wife, Heidi, is director of Human Resources and Retail Operations for Hospice of the Foothills. The two share four children – their oldest is a freshman at Chico State while the youngest is in seventh grade.

“I think my hope is that people will continue to recognize we are putting forth reliable, professionally researched articles for the public,” Wingo said. “The Union has been in the community since 1864 and I want to continue with what that goal has always been: providing reliable local news to our community, and to support our local businesses.”

While preserving the history of the community and the paper, Wingo also said there is always room for growth.

“I think that the public should know that we were purchased as of June 1 (2022) and we have spent the last seven months trying to untie everything,” Wingo said. “We had ties to Swift who had owned us for decades. And that is a cumbersome process and there were some unforeseen issues that arose that were a challenge to mitigate. We are definitely in a better spot currently with that transition than we were a month ago. I can guarantee that tomorrow will be better than yesterday and next week will be better than last week.”