Staloch takes over as Law Journal publisher

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Stephen Staloch is no stranger to Wisconsin publications and – after a 15 year excursion in California – now finds himself back at the helm of a couple.

Staloch officially took over as publisher of the Wisconsin Law Journal and The Daily Reporter on May 4. His roots in Wisconsin newspapers go back to 1991, though, when he and business partners bought newspapers in Baraboo, Chippewa Falls, Portage and Shawano.

Nine years later, their company, Independent Media Group, owned 43 publications and websites in Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska. After selling that business, Staloch was next brought by his entrepreneurial drive to Merced, Calif., where he worked as senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Pacific-Sierra Publishing Co., managing the day-to-day operations of five print and 10 online publications.

“We headed west, where we thought prosperity was,” Staloch says. “It was: Go west, young man.”

In California, Staloch and his partners eventually bought 12 of the papers they had been managing and formed Mainstreet Media Group LLC. Following the sale of that company, Staloch says, he doubted he would ever get back into publishing. The Daily Reporter and the Wisconsin Law Journal appealed to him, he says, in part because they presented opportunities to repeat his past successes, but this time by reaching out to readers in tightly defined groups.

“This is a niche company that focuses on a very narrow set of industries — construction and the law,” Staloch said. “Considering the valuation of both of those industries, the opportunity to grow these publications seemed incredible.”

Staloch said he likes many of the things The Daily Reporter and the Law Journal do now — including the original articles and photographs produced by staff employees. Still, he said, nothing is so good that it cannot be made better.

“We want to grow these publications,” Staloch said. “They are certainly not broke. But they have become somewhat stagnant, and there is a need for the infusion of new ideas.”