As the saying goes, “Nothing lasts forever.” And, as hard as it is for me to believe, the Rhoades family will be officially out of the newspaper business as of tomorrow.
It’s been over 150 years since L.F. Hilton bought a small lot in the tiny developing town of Blair and started the first Blair newspaper, “The Register.” The names of the newspapers have changed over the years, but our family has had a hand in the newspapers in Washington County since 1869.
I’ve been retired on a trial basis for the last two years, and honestly really enjoy my 10-2 office schedule. My involvement in the company has been minor, although I still had weekly meetings with my son Chris, and often consulted with our executive editor for story ideas. On occasion, I’d be called on for miscellaneous tasks. I kept my office, and typically would stop by almost daily to do some personal business and make the rounds for a quick visit with staff.
It’ll be strange next week as the newspaper I’ve been in charge of for over 40 years moves on without me. My mind flashes back to my beginning days at “the paper,” when I was handed a broom as a youngster and made my way around the plant sweeping up paper scraps and lead shavings. I even spent some time melting down the old lead type so it could be re-used in our Linotype typesetting machines. From there, my duties evolved from helping on the various printing presses and delivering printing, to graphic design work and — probably my favorite job at the time — developing film and making prints in the darkroom.
While in college, I spent my summer months writing sports and selling advertising. After college graduation, I tried my hand at publishing an entertainment newspaper and had a cable news channel in several communities that included videotaping local sporting events that were replayed during the week.
After I decided to join the family business full time, I began to eye other area publications as a way to build the business by consolidating services and production while adding more print jobs for our printing press. At our peak, we were publishing 15 newspapers that served over 50 communities in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.
Three years ago, we sold our Seward, Neb., newspaper group of five newspapers to our long-time publisher, Kevin Zadina, and now our final 10 publications are being sold to Carpenter Media Group.
I’m confident our staff will continue to produce the quality publications you’ve come to expect. I’m super proud of everyone here as over the years we’ve been honored at state conventions with dozens of awards each year. We even won the coveted General Excellence award eight times as the best overall newspaper in the state. I always said that I didn’t care if we won any other award but that one.
There’s no way that I can thank everyone here for all they’ve done for our newspapers because my space here is limited. I can mention a couple of our long-time veterans, Lynette Hansen in Blair and Matt Gengler in Missouri Valley, who have both been with us for over 30 years. Tracy Prettyman, our bookkeeper who’s juggled payroll, bill paying and all the other things that come with her job for over 20 years. Son Chris, who’s been with me for over 17 years and has helped lead us through many of the technological changes over the years, and encouraged me to slow down and enjoy life a little more. To everyone else who’s had a hand in helping us publish well over 100,000 pages of Washington County news during my 40 plus years, I say a huge “Thank You.” Words can’t really express how much I truly appreciate your efforts.
Now it’s time to turn the page to another chapter in my life. It’ll be difficult for me not to have a hand in what’s in our newspapers each week. I’m sure I’ll still stop by the office and give my 2 cents worth about what should be in the paper.
But now I’ll have time for a little more traveling, chasing grandkids, golf, pickleball, and who knows what else I’ll find myself getting into. I’m hoping the new owners will invite me to share a column on these pages from time to time in the future, but for now, thanks for reading for all these years.
