“Live each day to it’s fullest” is the motto of Bob Chute, publisher of Paso Robles Magazine.  With his long, rich history of involvement in the hometown publishing industry, it’s obvious he’s done just that.

Family man, businessman, editor, publisher, staunch supporter of everything “Paso Robles,” all these terms describe Bob.  Originally from southern California, as a young man Bob enlisted in the Air Force. After his honorable discharge in 1971 he attended Monterey Peninsula College. It was a summer job at the Monterey Herald that sparked his interest in publishing.  When the summer was over, they asked him to stay and he hasn’t looked back. His career took him to San Luis Obispo to work at the Telegram Tribune and then to the Times-Press-Recorder in Arroyo Grande. In 1991 he purchased the Country News, a small weekly paper that covered the Paso Robles Region. He built the newspaper into a thriving publication over eight years, and then sold it when the right opportunity presented itself.

Although temporarily out of the publishing business, Chute knew that he wanted to stay in the Paso Robles area. He did some consulting around the state and worked for other publications, but he and his late wife Karen (she died of cancer in 2004) recognized there was a need for a monthly news and feature publication in North San Luis County. Always willing to take a chance on a good idea, Paso Robles Magazine was born in May of 2001. The mission of the interesting local news publication is to report on the happenings, people and places of the Paso Robles area while providing advertisers a great medium to promote their goods and services. Readers have responded well. The publication is now mailed to 23,068 homes and boasts an average of 170 advertisers. The magazine is also published online, but he limits the online version to just three stories because he feels that the print version “provides the impact we need for our advertisers. They pay the bills.”

When he started the magazine, Chute went “straight to Casey Printing.” He cited his past experiences with Casey as the reason for this decision. “They produce consistently good quality, on time performance, and have an excellent customer service team,” he said. Chute continued, “Karen Battaglia is just a great account executive.”

When he isn’t working on the magazine, Chute and his bride of three years, Rhoda, enjoy traveling and spending time with family. He has three grown and married children scattered around the country, including a son in Portland, ME, a daughter in San Jose, a daughter in San Diego as well as grandchildren in each location. He says that his magazine takes about 3 weeks to produce so they try to take the extra week out of every month to regroup, get away from the craziness by themselves or visit children and grandchildren. Chute says that it is important to take the time to make these trips and be with people that he loves, “Life is precious.”