The 2011 book “Tales of the Big Potato” includes a two-page history of The Apopka Chief. It recounts the current Chief’s founding in 1923 and the six owners who have published the paper over the last century, including the late John Ricketson.
“The local newspaper belongs to the people it serves, and we, the current owners/management, are temporarily in charge,” Ricketson said in the book. “If we do our job right, then long after we are gone, local newspapers will be here as a viable product that has been and is important to the growth of the greater Apopka area.”
As you know, John finished his race as caretaker last July. Today marks the formal end for the rest of the Ricketson family, Eileen, Joe and Jerry, who have sold the business to Mainstreet Daily News, a subsidiary of Orlando-based MARC Media.
John and Eileen Ricketson purchased The Apopka Chief in 1980, and it quickly rose to statewide prominence in the coming years. Led by editor John Peery, who served at the Chief for 45 years until his passing in 2023, Apopka’s newspaper won numerous Florida Press Association sweepstakes titles for best overall weekly newspaper performance—honors still memorialized by trophies in our office on Park Avenue.
Eileen was a faithful partner to John for 44 years at the Chief and has valiantly carried on as the leader of this operation during John’s illness and in the seven months since his passing. At 83, she has more than earned her retirement, after working seven days a week for many years.
Joe, Jerry and their younger brother Jamey (a Battalion Chief for Leesburg) grew up in the newspaper business and can remember addressing papers as children in the back of the family van. Joe has worked in a full-time capacity for more than 20 years, designing ads, managing the website, and generally doing whatever needed to be done. Jerry, who is retired from the Air Force, has jumped in to play a key role in the months since John’s passing.
John would be proud of the way his family has carried on in his absence. The Ricketson name is and always will be synonymous with The Apopka Chief.
Now, it’s time to pass it on to a new caretaker. John started this process in 2022 when he met with J.C. Derrick of Mainstreet Daily News, an Apopka resident who is the incoming publisher. The Ricketsons renewed those conversations in the wake of John’s death last year, and the transition has been under way for weeks.
Words fall short of expressing the Ricketson family’s deep gratitude to the Apopka community its friendship, care and support over the last 45 years. They are passing the baton with no regrets and great hope for the future. It is the family’s hope that the community will continue to give the Chief the strong support it has afforded the newspaper for the last 102 years.
Exciting days lay ahead.
