McCook Daily Gazette
Encyclopedia
The McCook Daily Gazette is a newspaper published in McCook, Nebraska
, serving southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas. The newspaper is issued five days a week, Monday through Friday afternoons. It has a circulation of 4,564
In 1929, the Gazette became one of the first newspapers in the world to be delivered by air. Its airplane, the Newsboy, still decorates the nameplate
.
. In 1906, at the age of 14, he was forced by family circumstances to quit school and go to work as a printer's devil
for the Pawnee City Republican. A year later, he moved to Fairbury, Nebraska
; but at the age of 16, when the editor of the Republican fell ill, he returned to Pawnee City and published the newspaper for three months until the editor's recovery. Strunk continued to move from newspaper to newspaper; in 1909, at the age of 17, he was shop foreman of the Norton, Kansas
Daily Telegram, overseeing ten typesetters.
Later in 1909, Strunk set off for the West Coast. En route, he saw and responded to an advertisement seeking a printer for the weekly McCook Tribune. Nine months later, he and fellow Tribune employee Burris H. Stewart started their own job-printing shop, "with so few assets that they were forced to borrow money to buy ink". Six months later, in 1911, the two launched their own newspaper: the semi-weekly Red Willow Gazette, again with no assets and with heavy debts. Distressed by their financial situation, Stewart committed suicide on the day of the paper's second issue.
Strunk persevered, and the paper proved successful. In 1914, it acquired a Linotype
, the first between Hastings, Nebraska
and Denver, Colorado
; McCook became the smallest city in Nebraska to possess one. In 1924, the paper changed its name to the present McCook Daily Gazette and began daily publication; again, McCook became the smallest city in Nebraska with a daily newspaper. In 1926, the operation moved to a new building on Main Street, whose facade was inscribed with the paper's motto: "Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in this world."
was expensive, since postage rates for newspapers had been raised drastically by the War Revenue Act of 1917
; it also took several days for the papers to reach some customers. In more developed parts of the country, publishers delivered papers by truck to local carriers in outlying towns. However, the improvement of roads in the McCook area was slower than in more densely populated areas. By 1929, U.S. Highway 38 (now U.S. Highway 6) had not yet been fully gravelled in southwestern Nebraska, and most roads off the main highways were impassable in bad weather.
Strunk's solution was to go by air. In 1929, he paid $8,000 for a Curtiss Robin C1
two-seater monoplane, christened the Newsboy. On September 13, 1929, air delivery began. The Newsboy flew a nonstop three-hour route covering 389 miles (626 km), passing over more than 40 communities in southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas. At each town, a bundle of papers was dropped from a height of 500 feet (152.4 m) onto a prearranged field, where it was picked up by local carriers. Papers were delivered as far west as Benkelman, Nebraska
, 54 miles (86.9 km) from McCook; east to Orleans, Nebraska
, 73 miles (117.5 km) away; and south to Atwood, Kansas
, 50 miles (80.5 km) distant.
Beside delivering papers to far-flung communities, the Newsboy served to promote the Gazette. Interest in aviation was still strong after Charles Lindbergh's
celebrated 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris. The newspaper offered a ride in the airplane to every two-year subscriber. It also opened a flying school: the pilot of the Newsboy would give flying lessons in the morning, then deliver the day's papers in the afternoon. To emphasize the newspaper's connection with aviation, a new nameplate
was introduced, with wings behind the name and airplanes on either side. Whether or not because of the airplane, the circulation of the Gazette increased from 2800 in 1928 to 4500 in 1930.
Delivery by air lasted for less than a year. In May 1930, the Newsboy was damaged by high winds while parked at the McCook airport. Strunk opted not to repair it and return it to service, citing "week after week of inclement weather, during which time we have found it impossible to fly our route on schedule". The airplane was not yet built, he wrote, that could "fly successfully in rain, wind, sleet, snow and fog."
A few major metropolitan newspapers had made short-term experiments with air delivery in 1928 and 1929. However, the months-long effort by the Gazette made it the first newspaper to conduct regular deliveries by air.
After the Newsboy was taken out of service, it was sold and restored several times. In 1972, it was placed on display at the Museum of Flight
in Seattle
.
In 1934, the Gazette absorbed the South Side Sentinel of Marion, Nebraska. In 1936, it acquired the triweekly McCook Tribune, at which Strunk had worked on his arrival in McCook. Later, in 1957, it absorbed the Red Willow County Reporter.
On the eve of World War II
, the Gazette acquired one of the last teletypesetters manufactured. With this machine, the paper could be produced with only two printers; this allowed it to remain in production at a time when Linotype operators were in short supply because of the war.
The Gazette made a second attempt at air delivery in 1950. For four years, a Cessna 120 was used to deliver papers to outlying communities. The high cost of operating the airplane, and the increasing availability of good roads for ground delivery, ended the venture. The plane was replaced by a fleet of small trucks and automobiles, all of which continued to bear the name Newsboy.
After the Republican River flood of 1935, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
conducted a study of the river's watershed. Released in 1940, it concluded that there were no good dam sites upstream from Republican City, Nebraska
, where the Harlan County Dam
is now located. Since 112 deaths and the bulk of the property damage caused by the flood had occurred in the upper Republican valley, which includes McCook, the report led to dissatisfaction among residents of the area. Strunk and three others formed the Republican Valley Conservation Association, which lobbied aggressively for the development of a flood-control program for the entire basin; the Gazette provided office space to the organization. The RVCA's efforts led to the construction of a number of dams in the area: one on the Republican at Trenton, Nebraska
, and several on tributaries of the river in Nebraska and Kansas. One of the latter was built on Medicine Creek
in Frontier County, Nebraska
; the 1850 acres (748.7 ha) reservoir behind it has been named Harry Strunk Lake.
to offset
printing.
At the end of 1986, the Strunk family sold the newspaper to Gozia-Driver Media, which was later re-incorporated as US Media Group. In 1997, the Gazette was acquired by Rust Communications
, its present owner.
The circulation of the Gazette has fallen in recent years. In 2001, the Nebraska Press Association listed it as 6,709. In 2005, a report by the Knight Foundation
gave it as "approximately 5,903". In 2011, the Nebraska Press Association's website listed the number as 4,564.
In 2009, the newspaper ended Saturday publication.
McCook, Nebraska
McCook is a city in Red Willow County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,994 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Red Willow County...
, serving southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas. The newspaper is issued five days a week, Monday through Friday afternoons. It has a circulation of 4,564
In 1929, the Gazette became one of the first newspapers in the world to be delivered by air. Its airplane, the Newsboy, still decorates the nameplate
Nameplate (publishing)
In publishing, a nameplate is the title of a newspaper or other periodical in the type style and treatment in which it appears on the front page or cover of the periodical...
.
History
Harry D. Strunk was born in 1892 in Pawnee City, NebraskaPawnee City, Nebraska
Pawnee City is a city in Pawnee County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,033 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pawnee County.-Geography:Pawnee City is located at...
. In 1906, at the age of 14, he was forced by family circumstances to quit school and go to work as a printer's devil
Printer's devil
A printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type...
for the Pawnee City Republican. A year later, he moved to Fairbury, Nebraska
Fairbury, Nebraska
Fairbury is a city in Jefferson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 4,262 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Jefferson County....
; but at the age of 16, when the editor of the Republican fell ill, he returned to Pawnee City and published the newspaper for three months until the editor's recovery. Strunk continued to move from newspaper to newspaper; in 1909, at the age of 17, he was shop foreman of the Norton, Kansas
Norton, Kansas
Norton is a city in and the county seat of Norton County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,928.-History:...
Daily Telegram, overseeing ten typesetters.
Later in 1909, Strunk set off for the West Coast. En route, he saw and responded to an advertisement seeking a printer for the weekly McCook Tribune. Nine months later, he and fellow Tribune employee Burris H. Stewart started their own job-printing shop, "with so few assets that they were forced to borrow money to buy ink". Six months later, in 1911, the two launched their own newspaper: the semi-weekly Red Willow Gazette, again with no assets and with heavy debts. Distressed by their financial situation, Stewart committed suicide on the day of the paper's second issue.
Strunk persevered, and the paper proved successful. In 1914, it acquired a Linotype
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
, the first between Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings, Nebraska
Hastings is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, United States. It is the principal city of the Hastings, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Adams and Clay counties. The population was 24,907 at the 2010 census...
and Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
; McCook became the smallest city in Nebraska to possess one. In 1924, the paper changed its name to the present McCook Daily Gazette and began daily publication; again, McCook became the smallest city in Nebraska with a daily newspaper. In 1926, the operation moved to a new building on Main Street, whose facade was inscribed with the paper's motto: "Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in this world."
The Newsboy
In the 1920s, the spread of the automobile and the improvement of roads in the United States made it easier for rural residents to do their shopping in larger towns farther from their homes. This gave merchants an incentive to advertise in newspapers that reached such residents. However, delivering the papers in a timely fashion became a problem for the publishers. The U.S. MailUnited States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
was expensive, since postage rates for newspapers had been raised drastically by the War Revenue Act of 1917
War Revenue Act of 1917
The United States War Revenue Act of 1917 greatly increased federal income tax rates while simultaneously lowering exemptions.The 2% bracket had previously applied to income below $20,000. That amount was lowered to $2,000...
; it also took several days for the papers to reach some customers. In more developed parts of the country, publishers delivered papers by truck to local carriers in outlying towns. However, the improvement of roads in the McCook area was slower than in more densely populated areas. By 1929, U.S. Highway 38 (now U.S. Highway 6) had not yet been fully gravelled in southwestern Nebraska, and most roads off the main highways were impassable in bad weather.
Strunk's solution was to go by air. In 1929, he paid $8,000 for a Curtiss Robin C1
Curtiss Robin
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography*Bowers, Peter M. Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947. London: Putnam, 1979. ISBN 0-370-10029-8.-External links:* * ****...
two-seater monoplane, christened the Newsboy. On September 13, 1929, air delivery began. The Newsboy flew a nonstop three-hour route covering 389 miles (626 km), passing over more than 40 communities in southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas. At each town, a bundle of papers was dropped from a height of 500 feet (152.4 m) onto a prearranged field, where it was picked up by local carriers. Papers were delivered as far west as Benkelman, Nebraska
Benkelman, Nebraska
Benkelman, a city, is the county seat of Dundy County , Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,006 at the 2000 census. As of the 2010 census it has a population of 839-Geography:Benkelman is located at ....
, 54 miles (86.9 km) from McCook; east to Orleans, Nebraska
Orleans, Nebraska
Orleans is a village in Harlan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 425 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Orleans is located at ....
, 73 miles (117.5 km) away; and south to Atwood, Kansas
Atwood, Kansas
Atwood is a city in and the county seat of Rawlins County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,194.-History:...
, 50 miles (80.5 km) distant.
Beside delivering papers to far-flung communities, the Newsboy served to promote the Gazette. Interest in aviation was still strong after Charles Lindbergh's
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
celebrated 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris. The newspaper offered a ride in the airplane to every two-year subscriber. It also opened a flying school: the pilot of the Newsboy would give flying lessons in the morning, then deliver the day's papers in the afternoon. To emphasize the newspaper's connection with aviation, a new nameplate
Nameplate (publishing)
In publishing, a nameplate is the title of a newspaper or other periodical in the type style and treatment in which it appears on the front page or cover of the periodical...
was introduced, with wings behind the name and airplanes on either side. Whether or not because of the airplane, the circulation of the Gazette increased from 2800 in 1928 to 4500 in 1930.
Delivery by air lasted for less than a year. In May 1930, the Newsboy was damaged by high winds while parked at the McCook airport. Strunk opted not to repair it and return it to service, citing "week after week of inclement weather, during which time we have found it impossible to fly our route on schedule". The airplane was not yet built, he wrote, that could "fly successfully in rain, wind, sleet, snow and fog."
A few major metropolitan newspapers had made short-term experiments with air delivery in 1928 and 1929. However, the months-long effort by the Gazette made it the first newspaper to conduct regular deliveries by air.
After the Newsboy was taken out of service, it was sold and restored several times. In 1972, it was placed on display at the Museum of Flight
Museum of Flight
The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum at King County International Airport , south of downtown Seattle, Washington. It was established in 1965 and is fully accredited by the American Association of Museums...
in Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
.
1930-1960
The end of the aviation experiment forced the Gazette to return to ground-based delivery. Newspapers for outlying communities were transported there on commercial buses running through McCook; local carriers picked them up at their towns' bus stops. Same-day delivery was no longer possible for subscribers in communities off the main highways; they had to settle for next-day delivery.In 1934, the Gazette absorbed the South Side Sentinel of Marion, Nebraska. In 1936, it acquired the triweekly McCook Tribune, at which Strunk had worked on his arrival in McCook. Later, in 1957, it absorbed the Red Willow County Reporter.
On the eve of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Gazette acquired one of the last teletypesetters manufactured. With this machine, the paper could be produced with only two printers; this allowed it to remain in production at a time when Linotype operators were in short supply because of the war.
The Gazette made a second attempt at air delivery in 1950. For four years, a Cessna 120 was used to deliver papers to outlying communities. The high cost of operating the airplane, and the increasing availability of good roads for ground delivery, ended the venture. The plane was replaced by a fleet of small trucks and automobiles, all of which continued to bear the name Newsboy.
After the Republican River flood of 1935, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
conducted a study of the river's watershed. Released in 1940, it concluded that there were no good dam sites upstream from Republican City, Nebraska
Republican City, Nebraska
Republican City is a village in Harlan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 209 at the 2000 census. The town is near the Harlan County Reservoir.-Geography:Republican City is located at ....
, where the Harlan County Dam
Harlan County Reservoir
The Harlan County Reservoir includes a dam and a reservoir of located in Harlan County in south-central Nebraska. Its southernmost part extends into northern Phillips County, Kansas. The reservoir is formed by a dam in the Republican River, which starts in Colorado and ends in Kansas.The two...
is now located. Since 112 deaths and the bulk of the property damage caused by the flood had occurred in the upper Republican valley, which includes McCook, the report led to dissatisfaction among residents of the area. Strunk and three others formed the Republican Valley Conservation Association, which lobbied aggressively for the development of a flood-control program for the entire basin; the Gazette provided office space to the organization. The RVCA's efforts led to the construction of a number of dams in the area: one on the Republican at Trenton, Nebraska
Trenton, Nebraska
Trenton is a village in Hitchcock County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 507 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hitchcock County.-Geography:Trenton is located at ....
, and several on tributaries of the river in Nebraska and Kansas. One of the latter was built on Medicine Creek
Medicine Creek
The Medicine Creek is a tributary of the Republican River in Nebraska- References:* USGS - Water Resources of the United States...
in Frontier County, Nebraska
Frontier County, Nebraska
-History:Frontier County was formed in 1872. It was named for its location along the frontier border in the late 19th century.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 3,099 people, 1,192 households, and 828 families residing in the county. The population density was 3 people per square...
; the 1850 acres (748.7 ha) reservoir behind it has been named Harry Strunk Lake.
After 1960
Harry Strunk published the Gazette until his death in 1960, after which his son Allen Strunk succeeded him. Under Allen Strunk, the newspaper made the conversion from letterpressLetterpress printing
Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image...
to offset
Offset printing
Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface...
printing.
At the end of 1986, the Strunk family sold the newspaper to Gozia-Driver Media, which was later re-incorporated as US Media Group. In 1997, the Gazette was acquired by Rust Communications
Rust Communications
Rust Communications is a privately owned media company based in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States. The Southeast Missourian is its flagship publication....
, its present owner.
The circulation of the Gazette has fallen in recent years. In 2001, the Nebraska Press Association listed it as 6,709. In 2005, a report by the Knight Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American private, non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts....
gave it as "approximately 5,903". In 2011, the Nebraska Press Association's website listed the number as 4,564.
In 2009, the newspaper ended Saturday publication.