Founded in the early 1900s by William F. Huffman Sr., the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune came into being when Huffman purchased the Grand Rapids Daily Leader and the Weekly Leader in October 1919, absorbing both into a unified Tribune by spring 1920 to serve the Central Wisconsin community then known as Grand Rapids, which was renamed Wisconsin Rapids in 1920. Huffman built the Tribune into the dominant local news institution in the region before his death in 1949, after which his son William Jr. took the helm and co-founded the Forward Communications Corporation in 1955, expanding the family media operation into regional television and radio. Today, the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune operates under USA Today Co., part of the Gannett network, published from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. Today, the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune is mainly focused on local Wisconsin Rapids news, public safety, local government, education, business, and community coverage from their base in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. One interesting fact: Among the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune's former staffers is Robert D. McFadden, who worked at the paper from 1957 to 1958 before going on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior reporter for The New York Times, making it one of the more quietly distinguished training grounds for American journalism talent among small-market Midwestern newspapers.