The first edition of the Erie Daily Times, which would later become the Erie Times-News, was published on April 12, 1888. Born out of a labor dispute that had nine printers band together with John J. "Jack" Mead and his wife, Mary Boland Mead, the Times Publishing Co. was formed to print that very first edition.

The nine printers, each contributing $25, raised additional funds that were entrusted to John Mead, then age 26, to manage.

John Mead became both the business manager and treasurer of the new company, and hightailed it to Cleveland to buy what was needed to run the company. As a scrappy upstart, the men wrote their own stories and sold advertising from their office in the basement of a house at Ninth and State streets. The first edition of the Erie Daily Times made its way to the

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