Davey Hiott, president of Hiott Printing in Pickens, is a current member of The Courier’s board of trustees. His dad, Gary, served as a trustee of The Courier from 1968 to 1972 and was also the president of Hiott Printing. He was elected to serve a second term on the board in 1975, but resigned his position on the board in 1978 in order to successfully bid for the printing contract. Hiott Printing published The Courier’s 125th anniversary edition in 1994.

Throughout the years, The Courier has had more than nine printers. While we do not have records for the company or companies that printed the Courier from 1869 to 1877, we can identify all the others:

Keys Printing printed the paper from 1878 to 1935; Provence Printing in 1936; Hiott Printing from 1937 to 1976; Progress Printers from 1976 to 1978; Hiott Printing from 1978 to 2000; Martin Printing in Easley from 2001 to 2007; The Florida Sun from 2008 to 2014; and Walton Press in 2014 and 2015.

We returned to Martin Printing in 2016 with a newly designed full color, feature magazine.

Martin has won first place in the printing industry for its production of The Courier, and The Courier has won first place from the South Carolina Press Association for the magazine.

Today, The Courier is laid out in our offices in Greenville through computer technology and sent to Martin Printing. The advances in printing capabilities allow us to produce a first-class magazine that is not cost-prohibitive.

As we continue to develop our working relationship with Martin Printing, we are thankful for its contribution in making our historic 150th anniversary edition something memorable. Martin Printing views its relationship with The Courier as that of a partner instead of just a printer. Vice president Craig Ragsdale noted that both The Courier and Martin have updated and evolved in our respective areas of service.