From ‘Ricochet’ to ‘Orange Observer’: 119 years of community news

The first edition of Winter Garden’s first newspaper, the “Winter Garden Ricochet,” was published Sept. 13, 1905. The first editor was A.B. Newton.

According to an article in “The Winter Garden Journal” on Aug. 24, 1933, the “Ricochet” was started when Newton met a printer with the last name March on the train coming from Sanford. The printer was looking for work, so he and Newton hooked up, March continued on the train to Winter Garden, and they put out a newspaper. It contained four pages of three columns each and was produced on a hand press with all the type set by hand.

A year later, Newton bought “The Apopka Citizen” and merged the papers, which he sold in 1909.

CHANGING NAMES

There has continuously been a community newspaper in the area since Newton established the Winter Garden Ricochet 119 years ago. It has had a number of publishers and owners, and its name has changed frequently, but the Winter Garden paper’s goal has remained the same — to provide quality local content.

Following the Winter Garden Ricochet, it has been called The Winter Garden Times (around 1913-15), The Orange County Citizen (1918), West Orange Herald (early 1920s), Winter Garden Herald (mid-1920s), The Winter Garden Journal (1925-33), The Town Crier (1933-34), West Orange News (1934-48), The Winter Garden Times (1948-80), The Times (1980-87) and The West Orange Times (1987-2014). Observer Media Group bought the company in 2014 and, soon after, split the growing community into two newspapers: West Orange Times & Observer and Southwest Orange Observer.

In 1926, the Winter Garden Herald announced that it was “now a corporation,” and “the newspaper plant has been taken over by a board of directors…to secure at least thirty of the leading Winter Garden business men who are interested in news of the better kind in this community and to show their support of a newspaper of this class by becoming stockholders in a small way.”

The oldest copy of the newspaper that is kept in the office archives is dated Dec. 1, 1932. The top headline of The Winter Garden Journal reads “Burch-Story to publish Journal.” Major A.E. Barnett of New York City, a former pastor of Oakland Presbyterian Church, was editor.

The paper boasted new management, a new editor, new policies and new features.

The publication date was changed from Friday to Thursday to benefit the advertisers, who wanted the paper delivered in time for readers “to see their offerings before they do their weekend shopping.”

In 1933, Burch and his brother-in-law, William Story, who had formed the Burch-Story Press, started The Town Crier. This was distributed free.

Burch and Story changed the name to the West Orange News and charged $2 annually. After one month, they cut the subscription price to $1. The paper was distributed weekly “in the area between the intersection of the Gotha Road with the Orlando highway and slightly beyond the Lake County line, east and west; and between Fisherman’s Paradise and Windermere, north and south.…”

Lester Price Robinson was owner, publisher and editor of West Orange News, and working with him was R.S. Williams as editor and manager.

In 1948, Eldon Johns bought the paper and merged it with The Orange County Chief in Apopka. (The Apopka Chief later became a separate newspaper.) He changed the name from West Orange News to The Winter Garden Times. Ken Chatfield was editor.

In 1965, the owner of The Winter Haven News-Chief bought the newspaper but kept the name the same. From 1966-69, Don Barnes served as publisher and editor.

George and Anne Bailey purchased the newspaper from The Winter Haven News Chief in July 1970. It was a true family business, as the Baileys and their four sons prepared the papers for mailing on their living room floor. It was also a small business: George Bailey could bring the entire issue home from the Winter Haven printer in the back of his small car.

The Baileys ran the paper from a tiny office at 18 N. Boyd St. In 1980, the newspaper office moved to its location at 720 S. Dillard St.

The front page of the May 1, 1980, issue of The Winter Garden Times stated, “We’re About to Move!”

The next week, they named Kenneth B. Morris managing editor.

Nearly seven years later, in March 1987, the Baileys changed the name again to better reflect the community, calling the newspaper The West Orange Times.

Mary Anne Swickerath was part of the newspaper staff for nearly 30 years before retiring as manager editor.

The paper was sold in 2014, and the company moved the office from Dillard Street to its current location in Winter Garden at 661 Garden Commerce Parkway, Suite 180.

Through the years, as the newspaper name changed, so did the slogan underneath the name. Besides “In the Garden City in the Garden State,” it also proclaimed “Winter Garden, Florida — Where Money Grows on Trees,” “The World’s Largest Orange Shipping Center,” “Completely Covers the Rich Citrus and Truck Section of Western Orange County,” “Northern Gateway to Walt Disney’s World of Tomorrow” and “The Voice of West Orange.”