Aces of Trades: Hal Pixley went from newspaper ad man to business owner
WAVERLY – He (sort of) had one career in mind, then found his talent in another.
“I had no specific career in mind,” recalled Hal Pixley, “along with working for Pennington Funeral Home with my thoughts of possibly making that my career.”
Pixley was born in Dayton in 1955 but spent most of his younger years “having fun” in New Boston, Ohio. He graduated from Glenwood High School in 1973. Then he attended Ohio University in Portsmouth (before it was Shawnee State) and in 1976 was offered a job at the Portsmouth Daily Times in the classified ad department selling classified and small retail advertising.
“Within a year,” he said, “I had worked myself up to the retail ad department handling more of the larger accounts. Then early in 1981 my bosses at that time opened up the Community Common Newspaper, which I went to work for as advertising director in 1983.”
“Throughout my years at The Common,” he added, “I became very interested in higher-end ad designs and the printing field and was soon offered part ownership of the paper. As we continued to grow, I had the opportunity to purchase the Franklin Press Printing Co. in Portsmouth, which I operated while continuing to work at the newspaper.”
“The idea of opening up my current business,” he continued, “began with a conversation with one of my advertising clients at that time as he stated, ‘I wish I could deal with one company for all my print and marketing needs!’ It was a thought I carried with me for quite some time.”
At that time, Pixley had just moved to Waverly and decided to start his own newspaper.
“Going back to that thought to being a ‘one stop shop’ for advertising and marketing,” he said, “I soon moved the print shop to Waverly and obtained our advertising specialties licensing to be able to offer all of the marketing items available including giveaways, signage, screen printing, embroidery and any item you could put your name on to promote your business!”
Today, Pixley owns and operates Graphix Network in Waverly.
“As we continued to grow,” he said, “I decided to get out of the newspaper business to focus on Graphix Network as a full-blown marketing company.”
“With all the changes,” he noted, “throughout these many years (44 to be exact including the early newspaper days) I’ve had the great experience of seeing the media world go from lead type printing to compugraphic machines, the early days of the Macintosh and PC computers and to the introduction of cell phones, social media and the continued list of new ways to advertise, including GeoFencing, Over the Top advertising and so many more!”
“Working for Hal’s company is like working with family,” assessed Sandi Melching, who has worked with Pixley more than 20 years and is now the creative/production director at Graphix Network. “He’s always patient and understanding when it comes to his employees, and genuinely cares about his clients, doing everything possible to fulfill their needs and wants. I’ve worked for many different companies and can say with certainty this one treats you like family.”
“Looking back,” Pixley responded, “I’ve truly been blessed by doing what I do for a living and appreciate all the people I’ve met. As our slogan says, ‘Developed on Experience and Focused on Quality.’”
Graphix Network is located at 122 N High St. in Waverly. For more information, look on Facebook.
About the Series
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at gaznews@nncogannett.com or 740-349-1110.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Aces of Trades: Hal Pixley went from newspaper ad man to business owner
