For greater than 40 years, Rod and Kathy Worrell coated information within the Ainsworth space and owned different weekly newspapers in Valentine and Gregory, SD. Until lately, that they had little prospect of promoting the 2 Nebraska newspapers. (Courtesy of Rod and Kathy Worrell)
LINCOLN – Rod Worrell is asking it a “Christmas miracle,” however simply hours earlier than he is able to print the ultimate version of the Ainsworth Star-Journal on Dec. 25, a brand new proprietor has emerged.
Now each the Star-Journal and the Valentine Midland News, two weekly newspapers that Worrell and his spouse Kathy owned for greater than 40 years, is not going to shut.
“I did not have a lot hope,” Worrell stated.
Potential Ainsworth homeowners, he stated, had bother discovering anybody to employees the paper: Workforce is an enormous concern in lots of industries throughout Nebraska, together with in Ainsworth, a ranching group 140 miles west of Norfolk .
Graig Kinzie, the proprietor of Ainsworth’s native radio station, stated he was attempting to place collectively a gaggle to purchase the paper for 2 or three months, however every group could not discover somebody to run the operation.
Kinzie stated he even advised Worrell, a longtime {golfing} buddy, “I’m sorry,” his efforts had failed.
But then the homeowners of an Ainsworth automotive dealership, Clint and Katie Painter, stepped ahead to inform Kinzie that their daughter, Erin, wished to maneuver again to her hometown and was prepared to run the newspaper.
The Worrells now plan to work for a few months to assist the brand new homeowners – the Painters, Graig and Stephanie Kinzie, and Kirk and Chelsea Peterson – acclimate.
“I’m actually excited,” Rod Worrell stated. “I used to be wanting ahead to being the one to shut a newspaper that has existed in a single type or one other for 142 years.”
The identical is true in Valentine, a north-central Nebraska group the place longtime Midland News worker Dana Anderson and her husband, Ken, bought the paper, as first reported by News Channel Nebraska.
In Ainsworth, Kinzie, who has owned KBRB for 15 years, stated he hated to see the paper shut, although it competed together with his radio station for promoting.
“You hate to see a pillar of your group shut,” he stated. “From a group perspective it isn’t one thing we wished to see disappear.”
“Everything really labored out on the final minute,” Kinzie stated.
He added that since his promoting reps and accounting employees can deal with a lot of what must be performed on the paper, and he already covers many native conferences and video games, that may also be a bonus.
The bailout of the Ainsworth and Valentine newspapers comes as group newspapers have been hit by a lack of social media promoting, increased manufacturing prices, a decline within the postal service and difficulties in hiring employees.
According to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, a mean of about 2.5 newspapers every week nationwide closed final yr. More than 211 American counties now haven’t any newspapers, creating so-called “information deserts.”
