Forrest R. Church began working for Hometown Newspapers in 1992 as a Sports Reporter / Photographer in high school and through his early college years. Forrest has served as a publisher/owner for local Hometown Newspapers since 2001 when he bought "The Advance Reporter" (formerly "The Stryker Advance" and "The West Unity Reporter"). In 2003 Church expanded "The Advance Reporter" to the village of Fayette after requests from Fayette leadership. In 2004 Forrest and wife Casey purchased “The Edon Commercial” which served the villages of Edon and Blakeslee in Western Williams County. In 2010 and after a long duration of encouragement from community leaders in the Montpelier and Pioneer Ohio areas to begin covering news in their villages, “The Advance Reporter” and “The Edon Commercial” merged and expanded its coverage areas to Montpelier, Holiday City and Pioneer; renaming the merged papers “The Village Reporter” (serving Edon, Blakeslee, Montpelier, Kunkle, Holiday City, Pioneer, West Unity, Alvordton, Fayette and Stryker, Ohio). In 2011 the Church Family started “The Wauseon Reporter” after an organized effort from Wauseon community leaders to start a similar newspaper in the greater Wauseon area.
Forrest is married to Casey and they have one child, Landon. The Church Family attends Cedar Creek Church in Perrysburg. Forrest enjoys fishing, hiking and attending Big Ten / MAC sporting events.
Forrest may be reached by email at publisher@thevillagereporter.com or publisher@wauseonreporter.com.
