19th Century

Front page, first issue of the Chino Valley Champion, November 1, 1887

Richard Gird, the founder of Chino, also founded the Chino Valley Champion in 1887, as a "promotional sheet for the sale of the lands of the Chino rancho and to propagandize his newly established community. It was the first business in the new town.^[1] John Wasson, a real estate agent in Pomona, was the first editor.^[2] Everything that Gird purchased to put out the newspaper, its presses and its type, was bought "direct from the factory."^[3]

Although it was announced that "B.U. Mofflit, late of the Oakland Tribune, will have charge of the newspaper,"^[4] the first editor was actually John Wasson. The first issue of the Champion Valley Champion came off the press on November 11, 1887.

The Los Angeles Herald said of the first issue that the newspaper was "already setting forth the merits of this delightful location"^[5] and later that the newspaper was a "well conducted, artistic little sheet."^[6]

On the Champion's tenth birthday, its second owner and publisher, Edwin Rhodes, wrote: "It is a veritable fact that in the case of Chino a newspaper was started and the town built around it."^[7]

In 1891 Wasson was listed as publisher of the newspaper,^[8] but in that year also he left the paper, having bought a half interest in the Pomona Times.^[9]

20th Century

Front page of the Chino Champion, November 11, 1922, 35 years after its first issue

Edwin Rhodes was editor for 16 years, from 1890 to 1906, later becoming president of the First National and Chino Savings Bank.^[10]

In 1906, Charles A Gardner was owner and publisher. He dropped the word Valley from the newspaper's masthead and renamed it Chino Champion, effective May 4.^[11]

Ralph Homan, who operated a local store with his father, bought the newspaper in 1909.

In 1920, Homan went into law, selling to a Nebraska newspaperman, Elmer Howell Sr. Howell was later joined by his brother-in-law, Charles Frady, and then by nephew E.R. (Bob) Frady, who was the editor until 1949. The Champion published twice a week in the 1920s.

In 1956, Allen P. McCombs came to town, right out of navy service. The young college-educated outsider from Berkeley completed 50 years as editor and publisher on October 1, 2006. In 1958, a weekly Shopping News was published on Wednesday and sent to non-subscribers. The Champion continued to publish on Thursday. The need for speedier printing led to the purchase of a used roll-fed Duplex press that printed and folded eight pages at once. During the 1960s, to keep up with trends in the newspaper industry, the Champion converted from "hot type" to offset. By 1970, the Duplex had been scrapped and the printing was "farmed out" to a larger printing firm in Riverside.

Less than a year later two-thirds of the building was gutted by fire, started by a Molotov cocktail thrown during a period of ethnic strife. The Champion continued publication from temporary quarters until a fast-working local contractor had the building repaired four months later.

The community was doubling in population every 10 years. The opening of the Pomona Freeway brought new business. In 1972, the Chino Valley News was put out on Wednesday and sent to everybody. The paid-subscription Champion was moved to Friday. In 1978, the South Ontario News was started, and in 1980, a Sunday Champion was published, but it lasted only eight months. In 1988, the Chino Hills News was added, three years before the new city incorporated.

The disappearance of the hometown weekly from the Southern California scene led the Champion to strengthen its position. On August 4, 1994, the Champion combined its paid and free newspapers into the once-a-week Chino and Chino Hills editions, distributed on Thursday to everybody.

This delivery was changed to Saturday in 1999 to accommodate a new classified ad linkup with the Press Enterprise of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, which was now printing the Champion.

In 2000, Bruce Wood, a former Champion general manager, returned as co-publisher.