Gering Courier

The Gering Courier is a weekly newspaper serving the Gering, Nebraska community, currently published in Gering's sister city of Scottsbluff.[2]

The Gering Courier building, which housed the paper from 1915 through the 2000s. Now vacant, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.[3]
Gering Courier
Front page of December 29, 1899 issue
Typeweekly
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Lee Enterprises
EditorRich Macke
Founded1887
Headquarters1405 Broadway Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff County, NE 69361
Circulation1,035 [1]
OCLC number32034477
Websitewww.starherald.com/gering/

History

Established by Asa B. Wood in 1887[4][5] as a Republican-leaning weekly,[6] the Gering Courier was the first paper in Gering.

By the mid-1910s, it had a good reputation, with the Alliance Herald calling it one of the best papers in the West.[5] In 1915, it moved into the new Gering Courier Building, a structure now on the National Register of Historic Places.[7] In 1927, it absorbed competing paper the Gering Midwest.[8]

For over fifty years, Asa Wood was publisher and editor. A one-time president of the Nebraska Press Association,[9] he was also a breeder of cattle,[10] a state senator from 1924 to 1930, and, like many publishers of that time, the local postmaster.[11] Described as a "walking encyclopedia" of western Nebraska history,[11] he was one of the best known newspapermen in the state.[5] He left the paper to his son, Warren Wood, on his death in 1945.[11]

Under the younger Wood, the paper continued to expand, buying out Banner County's Banner News in 1955.[12][8] Following the death of Warren Wood in 1978, Wood's daughter Carol became publisher of the Courier and her husband Jack Lewis oversaw the paper's general operations.[13]

Ownership transitions away from the Wood Family

In April 1999, Carol and Jack Lewis sold the Courier to Robert Van Vleet's Excellence in Publishing, Inc., which owned the Sidney Daily Sun in nearby Sidney, Nebraska.[14] The Courier was then sold by Van Vleet to the Omaha World-Herald Company in February 2000 as part of a deal where the World-Herald Company turned over ownership of the Sidney Telegraph to Van Vleet (and the Daily Sun and Telegraph were consolidated into The Sidney Sun-Telegraph).[15] The Omaha World-Herald Company, whose holdings included the Courier, was in turn purchased by Berkshire Hathaway in 2011.[16]

The Courier was part of Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiary BH Media Group, although starting in 2018 it was managed by Lee Enterprises.[17] In January 2020 it was announced that Lee Enterprises was purchasing Berkshire Hathaway's newspaper holdings. [18] [19] The Courier shares resources with two other nearby newspapers, the Star-Herald and the Hemingford Ledger, both also owned by Lee Enterprises.

Accolades

The Courier has won top honors in the Nebraska Press Association's Better Newspapers contest, including the Loral Johnson award in 2006.[20]

References
  1. "Gering Courier". mondotimes.com. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  2. "Western Nebraska Newspapers". Nebraska Press Association. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  3. "Gering Courier Building". National Park Service. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  4. "Gering Courier Buys Banner News". Lincoln Journal Star. 11 July 1955. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  5. "Past, Present and Future". The Alliance Herald. 24 February 1916. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  6. Nebraska State Historical Society Publications. The Society. 1907.
  7. Gering, Scottsbluff, and Terrytown. Arcadia Publishing. 2009. ISBN 9780738560748.
  8. "About The Gering courier". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  9. "Editor Becomes Candidate". Lincoln Journal Star. 18 May 1922. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  10. "Editor Becomes Candidate (cont'd)". Lincoln Journal Star. 18 May 1922. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  11. "Publisher at Gering Dies". The Lincoln Star. 8 May 1945. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  12. "Gering Courier Buys Banner News". Lincoln Journal Star. 11 July 1955. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  13. "Gering Courier Building". National Park Service. 2004. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  14. "Daily Sun company buys historic Gering paper". Sidney Daily Sun. Sidney, Nebraska. April 8, 1999. p. 1. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  15. Tustin, Gordan R. (March 2, 2000). "Excellence in Publishing buys Sidney Telegraph". The Sidney Telegraph. Sidney, Nebraska. p. 1. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  16. Bundy, Jeff (November 30, 2011). "Buffett to buy The World-Herald". Omaha, Nebraska. Archived from the original on December 8, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  17. Jordon, Steve; Davis, Brad (June 26, 2018). "Scottsbluff, Gering and Hemingford papers among BH Media newspapers to be managed by Lee Enterprises". Star-Herald/BH News Service. Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  18. "Lee Enterprises to buy Berkshire Hathaway newspaper operations; Berkshire Hathaway to finance all debt". lee.net. Lee Enterprises. January 29, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020. Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE: LEE), a trusted local news provider and leading platform for advertising in 50 markets, has entered into a definitive agreement with Berkshire Hathaway to acquire BH Media Group’s (“BHMG”) publications and The Buffalo News for $140 million in cash.
  19. Stephen, Kamie (January 29, 2020). "New era begins at the Gering Courier". Gering Courier. Gering, Nebraska. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  20. "Gering, Grand Island newspapers honored". Lincoln Journal Star. 25 April 2006. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
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