Jerry Bean has been managing business budgets nearly all his life, budgets ranging in size from a paperboy’s weekly collections to USA Today’s financial plan.
His first job at age 11 was as a daily newspaper paperboy in Lacon, Ill., the small town where he grew up.
“In those days, a paperboy bought papers from the publisher at wholesale and resold them to subscribers at the retail price,” Bean said. “If you didn’t collect from someone, you were out the money, so I learned good business practices early in life.”
After delivering papers for four years, he began working for the weekly newspaper in his hometown, writing sports stories and also working part-time in the paper’s backshop while he was in high school.
He put himself through the University of Illinois, earning a degree in journalism and business in 1966 and finished with no college loans outstanding. “I paid for college by working full time in the summer and part time during the school year. Of course, it was much less expensive to go to college then.”
After graduating from college, Bean’s first job was as a reporter for the daily newspaper in Rockford, Ill. Thirteen years later in 1979, at age 36, he was named president and publisher of the 100,000-circulation newspaper. He later was general manager of USA Today and helped plan its launch in 1982, including supervising the writing of the national newspaper’s initial financial business plan.
Bean moved to Redlands in 1983 after accepting a position as publisher of the San Bernardino Sun and regional vice president for the Gannett Co. In 1987, he started his own company, Century Group Newspapers, which now owns and operates six weekly community newspapers that serve the nearby cities of Fontana, Highland, Yucaipa, Calimesa, Banning/Beaumont and Hemet/San Jacinto.
“At one time we owned 14 papers including four in Los Angeles County and three in Fresno County,” he said, “but I sold them so I could be home more.”
His most recent sale was in 2005, when the Community Newspaper Division of the Los Angeles Times bought his LA County newspapers.
Bean, 64, still lives in Redlands with his wife of 40 years, Brenda, who is a special education teacher. Their two children, Scott, 35, and Eric, 31, were both raised in Redlands and attended Redlands public schools. Eric is an electrical contractor in Redlands, and Scott works for Amgen, a biotechnology company in Thousand Oaks.
Within the community, Jerry has been a board member of Redlands Community Music Association and is currently president of the church council at First Lutheran Church of Redlands.
He is a former president of Inland Action and a former president of the Inland Empire Symphony. He has been a volunteer for the Redlands Symphony, arranging for the orchestra to present two concerts in Yucaipa.
He also was a volunteer for several school organizations, including the Redlands High School Speech Team and the Academic Decathlon Team.
He received professional accolades in 2006 when he was elected president of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade and professional organization for California's daily and weekly newspapers. He is now immediate past president of the association.
