From The Publisher:

Zero to 20 in 10 Years I'll be the first to admit, if Pioneer Communications were a sexy sports car, our current rate of acceleration would not impress many.  Zero to 20 in 10 years?  C'mon, we'd be lapped by a glacier.  But, we're not a sports car, we're a publishing company, and in the publishing world.zero to 20 in 10 years is warp speed.

Pioneer Communications was founded in 1996 by a successful Waterloo businessman, printer and entrepreneur, Jim Slife, and myself.a well-traveled publishing veteran who cut his teeth at Business Publications Corporation in the early days, moved on to the Register, then oh so quickly, moved on from there to Heartland Communications in Fort Dodge.  Jim and I had both been around the block in our respective careers and needed a new challenge.  I knew publishing and magazine marketing and Jim knew, well.Jim knew everything else (that's why he's the CEO not me). 

Wasn't long before Pioneer Communications was born and headquartered in the spare bedroom of my modest Clive duplex.  What excitement!  We had a grand vision.a company name.a CEO and a President.a phone.fax machine and a computer.  Only thing missing were clients:  we had zero magazines to publish; zip, nada.nothing.  But, we had faith, and soon a few former publishing clients, who believed in us, moved their publishing projects to our new little company.  The first few years were pretty lean: plenty of cash flow, but unfortunately, all flowing the wrong way. 

However, Jim and I both believed in our new venture, and we believed that our niche of short-run, high-quality, full-service, Iowa based publishing was needed in the marketplace, so we persisted.  As success breeds success, one by one, our custom magazines caught the eye of businesses and associations around the state and throughout the Midwest.  First, the Printing Industries of the Midlands (Graphic Impressions), then the Illinois Trucking Association (Illinois Truck News), then the Iowa PGA (Iowa Golf), then the PGA of America (Allianz Championship Magazine), then we acquired The Iowan and ABI's Iowa Commerce, and before you could say Chapter 11, we had assembled a team of the most talented publishers, editors, writers, graphic designers and salespeople in the business, and had a stable of 20 magazines and annual directory projects to keep us busy.

We moved out of my spare room long ago, and today, Pioneer Communications is headquartered in downtown Des Moines, occupying the 6th floor of the Fleming Building.  We have a publishing and subscription fulfillment division in Grundy Center and a commercial printing, production and design facility in Waterloo.

We've come a long way since the fall of 1996, and as publishing companies go.we've gone remarkably fast.

For Pioneer Communications, zero to 20 in 10 years is the publishing equivalent of Zoom-Zoom! 

Richard C. Thomas
President & Publisher