Newark Leader

Julius Juch took over sole publication of the Newark Express, or German Express, newspaper in March 1913 when Frederick Kochendorfer retired from the printing business. Kochendorfer sold his ownership of the paper to his partner Juch. Juch had arrived in the United States in 1892 to see the Chicago’s World Expo, coming to Newark in 1894. Juch went to work for Kochendorfer on the Express and quickly became instrumental to both the newspaper and the printing business.

From the Express to the Leader

Newark Leader headlines from December 25, 1941

The Express would continue as the German-language paper in Newark for four years under Juch, but the trajectory for the paper would change after the United States joined WWI in 1917. Allied against the German Empire, the United States underwent a wave of anti-German sentiment. German newspapers and editors faced suspicion of collusion with Germany. This atmosphere of fear led the U.S. Congress to pass the "Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917.” One stipulation of the Act was that all German newspapers had to publish English translations of war-related news, as well as swear an affidavit that the content was translated correctly. Juch suspended publication of the Express in response to this demand. Like many other German-American editors of the day, who feared being viewed as anti-American and pro-German during the conflict, Juch reinvented the Express into the Newark Leader, changing the mixed German-English publication to an English-only paper. Less than two months after the last run of the Newark Express on October 4, 1917, the first issue of the Newark Leader released on November 24, 1917. Juch laid out a path for the paper which would focus on labor issues, declaring that it was the "Official Organ of Organized labor in the city.”

The Newark Leader would continue as a weekly publication for almost thirty years, until the company suspended publication of its paper in September 1946. Juch would pass away on his 89th birthday on January 12, 1958, having spent more than fifty years in the newspaper business.

Leader Printing

Advertisement for printing services from Newark Leader Printing.

Commercial printing was an important part of the newspaper business, and Juch utilized his equipment in a variety of printing services for customers. This facet of the company would long survive the decline of the published newspaper as Leader Printing. The printing company was purchased from Julius Juch, his son Oscar, and their partner Edward Thompson in 1957 by Ernest W. Ryan and sons. A fire in December 1968 - an accidental conflagration connected to a burglary - damaged the Newark Leader Printing shop and surrounding buildings. Leader Printing [1]survived the fire, however, and continues the printing tradition of Kochendorfer and Juch to the current day. The Ryan family maintains the Leader’s legacy more than one hundred and forty years after its founding.

J.G.