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DRESDEN (September 6) — The ownership changed today for Tri-County Publishing, Inc. (TCP), the publisher of the Dresden Enterprise and The McKenzie Banner. Joel and Teresa Washburn of McKenzie, purchased the stock of Jeff and Jennifer Washburn, of Dresden in the family-owned business.
For 71 years, the Washburn family has been involved in the publication of the Dresden Enterprise and The McKenzie Banner. James Loyd Washburn started as a printer’s devil in 1948, shortly after returning from Occupied Japan immediately following World War II. James died in 1985, leaving the business to his wife, Ramona, majority owner, and sons, Jeff and Joel. The brothers purchased Ramona’s shares in 2015.
The sale marks a milestone in the life of Jeff Washburn, as he mostly retires from the newspaper business, where he worked since the age of nine. For 45 years, seven months and two days Jeff served as the managing editor of the Dresden Enterprise, a position he held with pride as he traveled throughout Weakley County covering the events and people of the county.
He began his newspaper career in McKenzie, working in the printshop, writing news stories, and photographing. He was later tapped to work at Associated Publishers, Inc. in 1973 when the new web press was installed at Huntingdon. That sister company printed nine community newspapers, including Dresden and McKenzie. In 1973, Jeff and Kenneth Kee were the press operators for a new five-unit web press. Kenneth Kee, of McKenzie, along with other pressman, still operate that press. Kee has printed the Enterprise and Banner for sixty years.
Jeff is the mayor of Dresden, the city judge in McKenzie, owner of Poppi’s Pizza in Dresden, and law partner in the firm of Washburn and Hutcherson in Dresden. His many obligations are in great part why he chose to sell the publishing company.
Jeff wrote, “During my career here, I have seen, wrote about, and edited literally thousands of stories about the good, bad, and ugly of the everyday occurrences involving the residents of this great county. This job has afforded me the opportunity to celebrate up close and personal the great accomplishments of our citizens and likewise grieve with individuals and families in times of loss and suffering. I have been tremendously blessed by God as he has afforded me the good fortune to come to know and love Weakley Countians from east to west and north to south.
“Over the past few months, as I approached my 65th birthday, I began to realize and accept that the time was right for me to begin getting some of my irons out of the fire as many people have often told me that I have “too many irons in the fire.
“My brother, Joel, and I began talking about me selling my interest in Tri-County Publishing, Inc. and other publishing-related assets to him. The corporation publishes the Dresden Enterprise and McKenzie Banner newspapers as well as operates a commercial print shop and sells advertising specialties.
“Just this week we reached an agreement for that transaction to take place and we focused our efforts on wrapping up that agreement as quickly as possible. September 6 is the day when I will no longer be an owner of Tri-County Publishing and each day reporting for work at the newspaper office.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t see me in the future on the sidelines of ballgames and present at other events across Weakley County with my camera in hand taking photographs and writing stories to continue telling the story of Weakley County. In my new role of helping my brother work to build a better newspaper for Dresden and Weakley County, I have the good fortune of getting to be selective about my assignments and number of hours worked per week. I will no longer have the burden and stress of seeing that the newspaper makes it to the newsstands and subscriber mailboxes week in and week out. This new opportunity also will allow me to sleep later in the morning and spend more time at home at night with my wife.