Senior Connections November / December 2023
Newspapers ’ roots all start in Lester Prairie
As Herald Journal Publishing recently acquired the McLeod County Chronicle and Arlington Enterprise , here ’ s a look back at tracing the roots of local newspaper history . Interestingly , all roads lead back to Lester Prairie . A Lester Prairie Journal began in 1895 . In January 1901 , a competing Lester Prairie News started , and then took over the Journal that summer .
Nearby , the People ’ s Advocate started in Howard Lake in 1878 , changing its name to the Howard Lake Herald in 1881 .
The Winsted Examiner began in 1910 , then becoming the Western Immigrant before going out of business . The Winsted Journal was formed in 1919 .
Also in the area , the Glencoe Enterprise began in 1880 , the Brownton Bulletin in 1892 , Stewart Tribune in 1895 , and Silver Lake Leader in 1901 .
As the small communities were much more self-contained for decades with locally owned businesses up and down the main streets , the local newspapers carried out their roles independently .
Neighboring newspapers weren ’ t really competitors . It wasn ’ t unusual for them to help each other out if a press broke down or a key employee was out for an extended time .
If anything , their focus was encouraging a shop-athome mentality rather than having people get in their automobiles and travel to a larger town to save 14 cents on toilet paper .
In the 1960s a new printing technology known as “ offset ” came to the area . It involved essentially creating each page on a type of paper , then reproducing it onto a negative and plate to be printed on a large highspeed press .
Rather than each publisher operating his own small printing press , a “ central plant ” – Crow River Press in Hutchinson – was formed , with a large capacity press that could serve newspapers from several counties around .
In 1980 , the local newspaper landscape began to
Dale Kovar HJ GENERAL MANAGER
change significantly .
In December , William McGarry purchased the Lester Prairie News from Lew Buss , moved it to Glencoe , and renamed it the McLeod County Chronicle . Rather than starting new , this allowed it to maintain status as a publication qualified to print public notices and compete with the Glencoe Enterprise .
At the same time , Winsted Journal owners Floyd and JoAnn Sneer began a newspaper titled the Lester Prairie Journal . I was part of their six-person staff for that undertaking .
Also at the same time , Buss began a free-distribution paper named the Prairie Ad-News .
This series of moves established competing publications in both Glencoe and Lester Prairie .
Local newspapering was at its prime then . Slowly , more consolidation and technology advancements began to change the industry .
In 1983 , the Sneers purchased the Howard Lake Herald to add to their business , then selling the group to Bill Ramige in 1986 who had taken over the Chronicle from McGarry .
The Winsted and Lester Prairie papers were merged in 1991 , unfortunately timed that the first combined issue was done during the Halloween Blizzard .
That week , we left the office Thursday after work , took the kids trick-or-treating in several inches of snow , and didn ’ t make it back to put the paper together until Sunday afternoon .
In 2001 , Lester Prairie native Chris Schultz and I purchased the W-LP-HL group from Ramige , choosing the obvious name of Herald Journal Publishing .
In 2002 , we acquired the Ad-News and merged it into the Winsted-Lester Prairie Journal .
Those papers went through a few more name changes such as the Winsted-Lester Prairie-New Germany Journal , and later the Winsted-Lester Prairie-New Germany Herald Journal . Quite a mouthful , huh ?
The culture of our local communities was shifting fast and this thing called the Internet really changed the game . People no longer lived , worked , worshiped , attended school , and shopped primarily in one town . It was a transportation free-for-all .
Schools were going through various consolidations as were many other lines of business . In many cases , businesses were no longer locally owned , if they existed at all . Recognizing that many readers knew and were interested in people from other nearby towns , the Winsted-Lester Prairie-New Germany Herald Journal and the Howard Lake-Waverly-Montrose Herald Journal were combined in 2005 to simply become Herald Journal .
Having now combined three newspapers into one , HJ went on the buy the Dassel-Cokato Enterprise Dispatch later in 2005 and start the Delano Herald Journal from scratch in 2006 – back to three newspapers .
Meanwhile , the consolidation trends continued among our neighbors as well .
The Brownton Bulletin and Stewart Tribune became one paper , which was later merged into the McLeod County Chronicle as were the Silver Lake Leader and the Glencoe Enterprise .
Now we take another step , not in consolidating publications , but in common ownership as Herald Journal Publishing expands to Glencoe and Arlington .
For the record , Chris Schultz took over my ownership interests a couple years ago . We remain committed to local news , both online and in traditional print , and carrying on the newspapers ’ s vital functions of recording and preserving history through news coverage , public notices , and preserving bound volumes of past issues .
Personal connections
My newspaper ties go back to writing a sports column for the Silver Lake Leader while in high school . At the end of the year , Wilbert Merrill gave me a $ 20 bill , which seemed like an outrageous windfall .
My mother , Mildred Kovar , also did some submissions for the Leader , and then transitioned from factory work to a reporter job at the Hutchinson Leader where she was known as “ The Country Girl .”
Also , there may not be too many readers left who remember that my uncle Milton Hakel owned and operated the Brownton Bulletin in the 1940s . Another uncle , Milt ’ s brother Art , also wrote some columns for the Bulletin .
And not to be outdone , my son , Kip , is the sports editor for Herald Journal .
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Senior Connections November / December 2023
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