Milton's first newspaper was the Miltonian, first published on Sept. 21, 1816, several months before the borough was incorporated, with Henry Frick as its first publisher. Many other newspapers appeared during the nineteenth century, including the States Advocate, the West Branch Farmer and True Democrat, the Northumbrian, and the Milton Ledger, while the Argus and the Economist were also established papers. The Argus and the Economist merged to form the Weekly Record, which ultimately became the Milton Evening Standard, established by William Penn Hastings in 1890. The Record and the Standard first operated at 11 Broadway, now William Raup's Landmark Collections Studio. William's father, John Hastings, and his grandfather, Thomas Hastings, had been involved in publishing beginning with The Jefferson Democrat, printed in Brookville, Jefferson County. After William Penn Hastings died in 1911, his son, Penn G. Hastings, took over the company and reorganized it. When Penn Hastings incorporated the business in 1914, stock was issued to himself and his brothers, John E., Percy W., Berkley V., and Fred G. Hastings. After leaving the Broadway site, operations were set up in the room behind the Hotel Bartram on Arch Street, now the bar room of the Hotel Stetler. By the early 1920's, the company had achieved modest success, making possible the construction of a spacious new office and operations building in 1923 on Arch Street, the home of the Standard Journal today. In January 1936, the fifth generation of the Hastings family joined the Standard when William P. Hastings, known as Bill, son of Penn, became advertising manager after Edward J. Coup left the position to devote full-time attention to his insurance business. Hastings held that job for several years and left briefly for a similar position in Philadelphia, but he returned to the Milton Standard when his father Penn Hastings died in 1940, and then took over as publisher while working alongside his uncle Fred, who had been editor of the Milton Standard from 1910 until his retirement in 1956. Charles N. Johnson then became editor. In 1952, the Hastings purchased the Union County Journal. In 1961, the company converted to offset printing, becoming only the second newspaper in Pennsylvania to adopt that printing method. By 1986, Hastings Printing Co., then a major commercial printing firm for numerous publications, was sold to Park Communications, and Liberty Publishing now owns the Standard Journal.