By Jon Cantrell

Publisher

ORANGE PARK -- After 40 years on Kingsley Avenue in Orange Park, Clay Today is moving a short distance south.

Our new address as of Monday, March 22, will be 3513 U.S. 17 in Fleming Island in the Westover Plaza. The office phone number will remain (904) 264-3200.

Clay Today opened at 1564 Kingsley Ave. with Volume 1, Number 1 on Dec.16, 1974. The Publisher was A. H. Tebault, formerly of St. Augustine where he and his wife had managed the St. Augustine Record since 1960. Clay Today was formerly known as the Daily Breeze back into the early 50’s and owned by Warner S. Hull.

The Clay Today operation was a "State of the Art" facility in 1974, according to the Newspaper Association Awards for Newspapers with circulations under 25,000. At that time they printed 12,000 copies and covered Orange Park, Bellair, Middleburg, Green Cove Springs and Penney Farms. Since 1974 there have been 10 acting publishers: 1974 A.H. Tebault, 1977 Bob Collins, 1980 Richard C. Wells, 1982 Paul Bonnerup, 1985 Mike McMichael, 1992 Robert Hoff, 1993 Carl Ferrer, 1995 Joyce Lydon and 1997 Tim Kult before I became became publisher in 1998.

While our mission is very similar to that of Mr. Tebault, we now publish the Clay Today on Thursdays and the Clay County Leader on Saturdays. Clay Today prints 16,000 Newspapers weekly and now covers Orange Park, Fleming Island, Argyle, Oakleaf, Doctors Inlet, Middleburg, Penney Farms, Lake Asbury, Green Cove Springs and Keystone. Times have sure changed; in 1974 Blanding was a two lane road, now it’s 6 lanes. The newspaper was 12 pages per issue and now we are always over 40 pages. We now print the paper at The Gainesville Sun due to the extreme cost of owning and operating a multimillion dollar press.

Clay Today is a member of the Florida Press Association, South American Press Association, Community Papers of Florida and the Association of Free Community Newspapers of America. We continue to win awards for our writing and advertising content. We publish several specialty publications during the year including the Clay County Visitors Guide (twice annually), The First Coast Health Guide in April, The Official Clay County Fair Program and entertainment guide in April, the All Clay County High School Graduation Edition featuring a photo of every graduate in Clay County, the Annual all Clay County High School football Season Preview Magazine, the Thrasher-Horne Center for the Performing Arts Playbill in October and a wonderful Holiday Gift Guide every November.

Plan to stop by our new office and look around. You can also visit us here on the web anytime.