In the remaining months of 1970, Joseph Waltz began working on his responsibility to establish a state Baptist paper. He contacted three publishing companies for information. The Maryland Baptist offered the proposal that was ultimately accepted. The Maryland state paper was published every Thursday. The editor, R.G. Puckett, suggested that the Pennsylvania/South Jersey paper be issued on the third Thursday of every month. The Maryland Baptist normally was eight pages long. The Pennsylvania/South Jersey paper would have its own news on the front and back pages of an eight-page paper. The remaining pages would be identical for the Pennsylvania/South Jersey paper and the Maryland Baptist that week and would contain SBC news of interest to readers in both areas. Joseph Waltz presented this plan to the Executive Board at their next meeting on January 9, 1971. There would be an initial cost of five hundred dollars and a cost of $240 per month. The board voted that the paper be called Penn-Jersey Baptist, that it be published by the Maryland Baptist, and that it be mailed to each family in the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey. It was calculated that three thousand copies per month would be needed.
The Penn-Jersey Baptist was published for the first time on February 18, 1971.