About NPC
Our History
Founders Barney and Charlotte Barnhart purchased NPC, formerly known as News Printing Company, in 1954 shortly after Barney received his Masters in Journalism from Colombia University. It was a debt-ridden letterpress operation that published three weekly community newspapers — The Hollidaysburg Register, The Cove News and The Williamsburg Journal. With Barney and Charlotte’s shared talent and passion for journalism, the two were able to turn the debt-ridden operation into one of the most controversial and widely read newspapers in the area. In 1963 they dropped one of the newspapers and combined the others into two versions of The Blair Press.
Barney believed in the power of the press and openly expressed his views in his favorite column, the Editor’s Week. One of Barney’s most controversial stories exposed corruption at the local hospital and the story made its way to the New York Times, spurring a national wave of hospital reforms in the 1970s.
The Barnharts believed in creating opportunity, so when offset printing technology became commercially viable in the 1960s, the Barnharts were among the first to invest in the future of print technology to supplement revenue and support their corporate family. To fill the increased press capacity, NPC began working with the Government Printing Office in the early 1960s. The rest, as they say, is history. With an entrepreneurial spirit — and an opportunistic mindset — NPC became experts at fulfilling the unique needs of a growing number of government and commercial clients.
Today, second and third generations extend the Barnhart legacy and continue to pave NPC's mission that "provides the opportunity for self-reliant individuals to improve their quality and standard of living." Achieving this uncommon mission translates to commitment, innovation and quality for our customers while sustaining an environment for our employees to better their lives. As NPC moves forward, we strive to maintain our open environment that encourages both personal and professional growth.
In the early days, NPC employees worked in multiple departments to help the company succeed. That practice hasn’t changed. Now more than 450 strong, NPC employees continue to drive success by blending their expertise in order to adapt to the needs of the marketplace.
NPC's biggest physical expansion came in 1990 when operations in five separate facilities in the area, including our original location in Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, moved to a new facility in Claysburg, Pennsylvania. An expansion project in 2002 nearly doubled the size of the production facility and enabled NPC to move all operations "under one roof." NPC has evolved solely in Blair County, Pennsylvania, into one of the top printing and information solutions companies in the United States.
While there’s no way to predict what we’ll be producing 5 or 10 years into the future, we will continue to develop new solutions for our customers. This is our heritage. This is our goal.