Marcus Amos opened Amos Publishing LLC on June 1, 2018, when he started the company’s first publication, The Scott County Herald newspaper. Amos had previously worked for another family newspaper in the same area for 30 years until it shut its doors forever. He and two other employees decided to join together and made plans to keep doing what they knew best, and they started this new, but familiar adventure together. Along with them, two delivery crew members helped distribute the new publication in Austin and Scottsburg, and an office manager and a part-time reporter also came along. Marcus and his young teenage daughter, Emily, started something new by also dropping bundles of newspapers off at business locations in Scottsburg, Austin, Crothersville, Uniontown, Lexington, Henryville, New Washington, Salem, Hanover, and Madison starting at 100 locations weekly. This was a major undertaking, all taking place during a matter of a month, as the former employees of the previous company, were just given two weeks' notice before their doors shut for good! Amos and his colleagues had to work many long hours to make this new adventure work. As the community was reeling over the idea of not having a community newspaper, Amos Publishing was hard at work making what seemed like a lifelong dream come true for Marcus Amos. It had been a vision for 30 years to have the opportunity to start up his newspaper. Marcus was a lifelong resident of Scott County. He loved what he did, working for a newspaper since he was 17 years old, starting the job, the day he graduated from Austin High School in 1988. Marcus began as a part-time sports reporter, photographer, and darkroom technician. He eventually became a full-time reporter for three newspapers, he eventually was allowed to go to Indiana University Southeast, where he earned a degree in journalism. His publisher blessed him with a fully paid tuition, which helped him to be promoted to the rank of managing editor for the same three newspaper publications. Marcus stayed in that position until that company closed! The vision for Amos Publishing was a gift from God. It was a vision that God had given to Marcus back in 1988, but it didn’t happen overnight. Marcus had to take 30 years to learn the ropes, so to speak before this vision would take place. “It’s like the Bible says, we must wait on God’s timing, not our timing. And when the timing was right, it happened quickly. We had a month to start preparing, and actually 10 days to push out the first newspaper for Amos Publishing. Talk about relying on God and the training each of us had before the start of the company,” noted Marcus Amos. “We were blessed by our community, the business came together and supported us financially by advertising in our new newspaper, we had readers, community leaders, our faithful readers come into our office personally, mail-in checks to us the first few months and made donations to us to make sure we could continue to print a newspaper each week and pay our staff. I even worked for three months with no pay, but God provided for us during that time, and we knew it! People would stop in and give us a $20 or a $50 and say go get you some groceries this week. One husband and wife who ran rental classified ads gave us our first financial gift of $100 as our seed money! It was a community effort to make sure that our community still had a newspaper,” noted Marcus Amos! Around 18 months after opening, God blessed our company, but I should say, God blessed His company because it was His vision he shared with Marcus. Amos Publishing started a second publication. The Clark County Herald was first published to give community news coverage to Henryville, Charlestown, Sellersburg, Memphis, Borden, New Washington, Marysville, Chelsea, and Otisco. This was another area that suffered from our previous company that served this area that we had worked for. We were able to come back to this community and give them a tangible newspaper that they could hold in their hands again and reconnect a community with its community newspaper. Amos Publishing was able to step in and help Mid-Clark and Northern-Clark County to regain something that they missed for 18 months. In this area, The Clark County Herald brought community news and helped businesses have a way to reach their customers again. We found that putting the newspaper in the hands of the local businesses helped bring customers to their doors to pick up the newspaper and help the customers find what they needed inside the doors of the businesses as well. We found that it was a win for Amos Publishing, the readers, and the businesses! Then about another 18 months, a dream of Marcus came true when another publication was birthed for Amos Publishing. Marcus always loved music and entertainment, dining and shopping around southeastern Indiana. A regional publication had decided to stop publishing. This left a void in a region that we hadn’t had an opportunity to expand in, but it was now opening up and it allowed Marcus and his staff to write about what he loved the most. So, Amos Publishing began publishing its third publication, a magazine entitled, The Outlook Dining, Shopping and Entertainment Guide. This opened up opportunities for Amos Publishing to reach new readers and businesses in Jefferson, Jennings, Ripley, Ohio, Switzerland Counties in Indiana, and crossing over the Ohio River into Milton, Ky. across from Madison. The magazine is distributed on the first of each month and has the largest circulation at present. The publication highlights events happening in these communities and also showcases events in Clark and Scott County as well. After being successful in all three publications up to this point, another unique opportunity happened. We were able to start yet another publication in the fall of 2023. The residents of Washington County had learned that their community newspaper was going to stop publishing a paper version and only going to strictly online. This had the community scrambling and our office was contacted by many residents and businesses contacting Marcus Amos and his staff, asking Amos Publishing to do what they had done so successfully in the other communities. In this situation, Amos Publishing had a week to decide to expand to its fourth publication, The Washington County Herald. The residents and businesses supported us and realized they needed a community newspaper and Amos Publishing knew they did too. Washington County, just like Scott County, Clark County, and The Outlook communities needed a newspaper as it keeps a community connected. So as Amos Publishing has been growing since its inception in 2018, it’s like a quilt, held together by each thread that is sewn, and by each stitch, it strengthens a community and gives that community something to be proud of and feel comfort and knowing it can be depended upon by everyone in the community. “It’s evident each week when the newest publication comes out each week, we see hundreds show up at locations where our newspapers are distributed, as they look forward to the latest edition. Our delivery crews see this firsthand as readers are at the distribution points waiting for them to arrive weekly. There are smiling faces weekly there to greet them along the newspaper routes. Many have become new friends and we see old friends along the way! It is like we said a community newspaper brings a community together,” noted Marcus Amos. This entire journey for Amos Publishing started as a vision in 1988, when God shared it with Marcus Amos, as God knew what was needed in our communities decades later. That is why when you open up the newspaper, our readers will find a section dedicated to sharing the Word of God. “I look at Amos Publishing as a ministry more than anything else. We try to spread the Good News with our readers, along with the community news as well! The mission statement for all of our publications can be found on the front page of our four publications. It is Philippians 4:13, that says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And every day I see this mission statement, it encourages me and reminds me that God is in everything we do,” Amos said. “I pray about every decision big or small, and I don’t act on anything unless I feel peace, and know that it’s in God’s timing! God has sent wonderful staff members to serve along with me at Amos Publishing, and each one has a gift that is unique to each of them to do the job that they do, to make Amos Publishing something to be proud of for each of us. I pray that you enjoy it and look forward to getting your next issue very soon! I feel that God has his hand on every moving part of this ministry/Newspaper Business and each staff member who was hand-picked for the job that they have been called to do here! For each person I needed, for each position, I prayed for God to send them, and God did just that. He sent the right ones. I also want to say thank you all for being a part of this dream/vision as well! Thank you for being a part of The Good News - A Journey of a Lifetime.”