Holdrege Newspaper One Of Smallest Dailies In State

By Kristine Jacobson 

The front-page headlines of big-city newspapers often feature violence, crime and drama.

In the Holdrege Daily Citizen, the front page is more likely to feature the local Rotary club meeting, a City Council story or an obituary of a local resident.

But, Bob King likes it that way, at least most of the time. Bob has been covering the Holdrege area news for more than 40 years, carrying on a newspaper legacy that was started by his father when he purchased the newspaper more than 55 years ago.

"I was always interested in writing," Bob said. "I like reporting on the lives and activity of people and showcasing interesting people and their roles in the community."

His parents, Dwight and Ruth King, purchased the newspaper and moved to Holdrege from Central City in 1957 when Bob was 6 years old.

Bob grew up at the newspaper. While in high school, he reported on sporting events for the Citizen. He graduated in 1969 and went on to earn a degree in news-editorial journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he also played in the Husker marching band. During college, he interned at the York News Times. After graduation, he began his career at the Citizen. His father died in 1995, and his mother died in 2007, leaving him as the owner of the smallest daily newspaper in the state.

"There are 17 or 18 dailies, and we are the smallest," Bob said.

The circulation for the newspaper is 2,800 with about one-third of that being mailed and two-thirds delivered in town by one of the 30 carriers. The Citizen has subscribers as far away at Nevada, New York and California.

Bob said that The Citizen is unique because it's one of two daily newspapers in the state that are still family-owned instead of corporate owned. The other one is The Norfolk Daily News.

The Citizen employs 14 people, including three others who have worked at the newspaper for 40 years or more. Production Manager Dan Jordan is the longest-employed with 46 years of overseeing the printing of the paper. Barb Penrod is close behind with 45 years of advertising sales. Editor Tunney Price started in 1973.

"I think they just like to live in a small town," Bob said.

They work as a team to get the paper to the press by 1:15 p.m. each day so that it can be to the post office by the 2 p.m. mail deadline and out to subscribers.

Bob likes to keep Daily Citizen traditions, such as publishing the obituaries of local people on the front page and keeping the "A Little Bit About Everything" column that was started by Harold Spence, a Citizen editor from the 1950s.

Luckily Bob doesn't have to spend much time covering murders or robberies, but every once in a while, there is some excitement. Bob admitted that the most exciting story he was involved with was in 1989 when two escaped convicts were stopped in Holdrege and ended up in a shootout with police.

"Tunney and I covered that," Bob said. "That was probably the most exciting story we ever did."