Remembering the story of Rogers and the people who made it great would be impossible without the archives of the Rogers Daily News. The Daily News was born when Earnest Vinson and John Nance started the Rogers Daily Post on Jan. 1, 1910. In July 1927, James P. Shofner purchased the Post and changed the name to the Rogers Daily News. Shofner moved the paper into the basement of the Progressive Life building at Second and Poplar streets (now occupied by Levi's Gastrolounge and Low Bar). Shofner sold the Rogers Daily News to E.W. Pate on Oct. 1, 1929. When he acquired the paper, Pate wrote an editorial outlining the new policies and purpose of the Daily News:
"We hold the idealistic theory that a community's newspaper belongs to the community and that those charged with its physical ownership and direction are merely acting as trustee for the public. The Rogers Daily News is -- first of all -- dedicated to the upbuilding of Northwest Arkansas ... Editorially, the News proposes to be active and aggressive in all matters affecting this section and to work ceaselessly and in harmony with the churches, schools, civic and commercial organizations for the betterment of the section as a whole. Our news columns will reflect the life of the community and all the news -- good and bad -- will be printed without bias or prejudice." (Rogers Daily News, Aug. 1, 1950)
Pate and Shofner purchased the other newspaper in town, the Rogers Democrat, on Nov. 1, 1929, from Erwin Funk. The partners then separated, with Shofner acquiring the commercial printing equipment and Pate retaining both newspapers, the Rogers Daily News and the weekly Rogers Democrat. (Article by Bob Edmisten, Rogers Daily News, circa 1970.)
In the summer of 1935, Pate purchased the old Hotel Main building at the corner of South First and Poplar streets (location now the site of Castor's Car Care Center). He renovated the large hotel into the Daily News building and published and printed both the Daily News and Democrat from here, until the papers and building were sold in July 1955. In that year, the newspapers were acquired by the Donrey Media Group.
In early 1962, the newspaper home was completely remodeled, and the paper was converted to offset printing -- the first newspaper in the state to do so. The Daily News continued to operate until December 1969 in the old Hotel Main.
The Daily News outgrew the Hotel Main location, and acquired the Newt Hailey Ford Dealership building at 313 S. Second St. The building was completely renovated into a colonial motif and produced and printed the first newspaper from this location Nov. 24, 1969. Billy Moore from Weatherford, Texas, was brought in to be general manager, while John Thomas, the previous manager, was promoted to another division by Donrey Media.
Jerry Hiett came to Rogers in the late 1960s to visit his parents who lived here. Hiett had extensive experience in photography and the newspaper business, since the age of 16, in Kansas and Colorado. In 1970, Moore offered Hiett the job of executive editor of the Daily News. He accepted and was executive editor from 1970 until 1976.
I interviewed Hiett recently about his days at the newspaper. Here are a few of his stories: "Donald W. Reynolds owned newspapers all over the country and lived in Lake Tahoe, Nev. He would visit Rogers about twice a month, and the Rogers Daily News was his favorite newspaper. The number on the tail of his private plane was the date he acquired the Rogers paper."
According to Hiett, "Achieving a bulk mailing permit from the government in the 1970s was a long and difficult process. The paper had a permit under the weekly Rogers Democrat and continued to publish the weekly -- even though they lost money on it -- so they could continue use the permit to mail the Daily News."
The Daily News was an afternoon newspaper and lost readers because of its late timing. About 1976, Oscar "Okie" Boyd, general manager, and Hiett decided to produce an early morning paper named the Northwest Arkansas Morning News. The Morning News and the afternoon Daily News printed in the same plant until 1981, when the Rogers Daily News ceased publication. For those three years, however, Rogers was the smallest city in the nation producing two daily editions.
I asked Hiett for some of the stories that stood out in his memory. "On Labor Day, about 1971 or 1972, one of the businessmen just south of Daisy BB-gun plant did not like the location of the street in front of his property. So while everyone was off for the holiday, he used heavy equipment to move the street. At the time it was a dirt street. However, when city officials found out, they made him put it back where it was."
Another story related by Hiett: "In 1975, some federal judge deemed that jails with bars were cruel and inhumane for the prisoners. Rogers was forced to remove the jail cages (originally bought by Rogers in 1884 for the first city jail) from City Hall on Elm Street and replace the cells with more comfortable quarters. The steel bar cells had to be cut in sections, and the door on the back of City Hall had to be enlarged to remove them. They didn't have any place to put them, so I let them store the jail cells in my pasture." The cells were retrieved and restored in 2010 by John Burroughs, museum staff and volunteers, and are now on exhibit at the Rogers Historical Museum.
"Probably the most outlandish thing I ever did at the Daily News -- and something that received a lot of attention and articles in press journals -- concerned my choice of a new society editor," said Hiett. "Madeline Spencer Lee had been the longtime society editor. When she retired, I stuck my neck out and hired a man to replace her. I selected Steve VanHook for the position. While a lot of men would not have accepted the position, Steve did.
"Historically, society editors have caused executive editors continual trouble. Every woman's group in a city makes every effort to entice the society editor to join their group. If she refuses, every member of that organization is upset. If she joins, every member of all other groups are upset. It is a lose-lose situation. I figured a man would have a better chance of staying out of this fray. As it turned out, Steve proved me correct. However, writers for media organizations were flabbergasted that I would even try anything this radical, and the Daily News was featured in almost every one of their publications."
Others who worked at the Daily News shared their memories on a popular Rogers website:
Ann Nickell: "I worked at the RDN (in that old white building) in late 1965 for just over a year. I worked in a big room on the second floor, where we typed the copy into a Linotype machine that produced a 1-inch-wide, yellow, hole-punched ribbon. We then fed the ribbon into another machine that printed out the justified story. Those stories were then glued to a full size page along with the headlines. That was my first job."
James Leslie: "I began delivering papers in 1958 at age 10. We met in the first floor corner room of the old building to prepare for delivery. Many of us folded papers into a square fold, and some may have used a triangle fold. Later, we used rubber bands on rolled papers. For a while, we had a machine that tied string around rolled papers -- which was faster. The old press got to having break down problems, and it would be dark by the time we could run our routes. It was a great day when they got the first off-set press in the state."
Dorothy Nell Leslie Parsons: "Editor George Moore had an idea to start a 'Teen Page' column to be in the Sunday edition. I was going to high school (class of 1967) in the mornings, and working at Rogers Daily News in the afternoons. It was my job to come up with news every weekend that teens would be interested in reading."
Ken Brewer: "I was working in the old building when the new one was built. I worked in the circulation department. We bundled the papers as they came off the press and prepared them for the paper carriers. Larry Rhodes was my boss, and the press operator was Carl Majors."
The Morning News merged with The Springdale News in 1990, both owned by the Donrey Media Group. Both papers shared production and composing staffs in a new building in Springdale on Lowell Road. In 1993, the Stephens Group Inc. purchased the Donrey Media Group, and it was eventually renamed the Stephens Media LLC, which published more than 30 newspapers in eight states. The Rogers and Springdale papers combined in 1994 to become The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, creating the state's third largest newspaper. In 2000, the paper underwent a complete redesign, shortened the name to The Morning News, and it began producing four zoned editions daily, serving the four major cities in Benton and Washington counties. The Morning News remained the leading source of news in Northwest Arkansas with a daily circulation of 37,000. (Excerpted from an article by Eugene Williams, The Morning News, May 10, 2006)
In 2015, all five of the Northwest Arkansas daily newspapers including The Morning News were merged into the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
NAN Our Town on 10/19/2017