THE BULL
Time has seemingly passed me in a big way since I moved to Clay County in 2009, and at the end of another year, I find it hard to believe that in 2025, will be the start of the end if you will of my 16th year at the helm of the Clay County News.
Most of all of it has been a great run, so many highlights, a few lowlights as well, but as I reflect on not just the past year, but the past 15 and a half years at home, in Clay County I had no idea what my decisions would have been like when I started negotiations with Ted Gill, our owner, had I just walked away from those talks and trips to make happen what is real today...for me, but I hope what we’ve built, worked hard for, and delivered over the course of my lifetime in this county.
I’ve had opportunities to leave, to take on new opportunities, options, and directions over these past several years, but here I still am, once in a while dodging verbal bullets, being challenged by negativity, and being thrown under the bus a time or two, but yet, here I am, fighting the good fight, dealing with the punches and feeling good that I am still a Clay Countian.
It’s not easy being in the media world, not at all. We look content, we put up a good front, and we battle on, despite the fact that week in, and week out, the challenges of what I do for a living isn’t for the faint of heart.
As my father, a long-time newspaperman in his own right often said at the dinner table, we fight the good fight for what is right, even if it might piss someone off, and cause a stir, our job is to put in front of our readers information, and let them be the judges of what we put out there, even if they don’t agree with what we put out on our pages each week.
Lately, as social media has taken over our world, and no this is NOT a dig at social media, Facebook in particular, it IS a reality of what life is like these days. Facebook, and social media in general is one bit “Letter to the Editor.”
It’s changed our culture, our means of getting information, whether or not it is good, or not, it’s here, and it IS changing the way of our life, it HAS changed the way of our life.
It’s affected how our city government works, our school districts operate, whether or not you agree with me on that, IT HAS.
I will, however, stand firm in my belief that what my staff does, week in, and week out, in presenting our news, whether it was nearly 16 years ago, or just last week, we work hard, we believe in what we do each day, each week, each month and each year is true, is with trust, and is certainly, without doubt, the news, and information that we trust is truthful from the sources that we reach out to.
There will always be doubters in what we present each week. There was 40 years ago when I was “wet behind the ears” breaking into my family’s business, the community newspaper business. Let’s face it, as I hit the 60 year old threshold, I officially became the “old man” of small town newspapers, because not many are brave enough to last that long in this corner of the newspaper world as I have been.
Am I worn out, certainly on some days, but have I given up the battle of ensuring that what we’ve worked so hard to do over the course of the past 15 and a half years? In no way shape or form!
The basis that I came in with in 2009 was from three key newspaper families, the Duncan’s, my own blood, the Huettman family of Wisner, and the Gill family of Arapahoe, all of whom (pardon my own pride) I’m proud to have worked for, and have learned this business from.
Hard times have been had since coming to Clay County, but bigger than that, far more prideful and enjoyable times have also come with the tough times.
2024 has been hard, honestly, since July 29, 2023, when the mini tornado hit our office, it hasn’t been a great run, but we all persevere, we move on in times of challenges, and we at the CCN have done so.
So as we head into a new year, 2025, we, at the Clay County News have every intention of bringing you the weekly news to the best of our strongest abilities, and most of all with the best of every intention, trusting that what you read each week, whether or not you agree with it, is information that we work hard to obtain, with the limited staff, and time we have.
Happy New Year everyone, and here’s to another year of newspapering, the community newspaper way!
