For 37 years I have started my column on this date by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I’ll do the same this year, but this will be my last year to do it as publisher of this newspaper. Starting next week, I am pleased to announce that Trevor Sherman, a young man who started his newspaper career with us 14 years ago, will be the new publisher of the News Journal. Trevor is talented in many ways. He has experience in selling advertising, writing news and sports copy and composition.
When I told our staff that my health would no longer let me carry on the duties of publisher, all were in favor of Trevor taking over. His youth will serve him well, because a publisher has many demanding jobs. Most of our staff has been here over 30 years and that will make this transition easy for him.
Although I will be giving up my position at age 85, I will still be writing columns when called upon by Trevor. I will also be available to fill in when necessary. My journey, that started in 1987 with this newspaper, has been exciting, rewarding and one that exceeded my expectations.
It began with a phone call from Willie Sawyers, who then was the publisher of the Whitley Republican, and he asked me if I would be interested in joining him at this newspaper. I had been working for Al Smith, a delightful owner of the Sentinel-Echo in London and he had just sold that newspaper to Park Newspapers out of New York. I wasn’t pleased with the new ownership and the call from Willie was timed perfectly.
The first thing I had to do was meet with the owner of the Whitley Republican, Terry Forcht, and discuss the possibility of me becoming the publisher. For me to make the move I told Terry that we needed to expand our advertising and readership base. To do this we would need to start a publication in Corbin which at that time had a strong daily newspaper. As the late publisher of the Barbourville Advocate, Cecil Wilson, told me, “The odds are against you because a weekly newspaper in Corbin has never succeeded against the daily.” A few years later Cecil sent congratulations on our success.
But it was all made possible because of Terry Forcht. For 37 years and seven months I have worked for Terry, and it has been fantastic. In the beginning he agreed to purchase the new technology, Mac Plus computers, that were taking over the publishing field. He was also in favor of starting a new newspaper which we called “Corbin! This Week”. Later, in 1992, we merged the Whitley Republican and Corbin! This Week under the title of News Journal.
In June of 1987 I started hiring additional staff to meet the demands of a second newspaper that we would be publishing in August. The start up was rough. I knew we had to succeed because publishing with computers took some time to learn.
On August 12, 1987, we published the first full color newspaper ever printed in southeast Kentucky. It was a major steppingstone for us to introduce “Corbin! This Week”. That week we sent copies to all addresses in Corbin and Williamsburg. Our subscription totals started rising quickly. In one two-week period we had over 1,700 new subscribers. We grew to become the largest weekly newspaper in the state.
We grew because we had a good staff. Linda Carpenter was the first person I hired. She is still with us and will become the longest employed person on the staff now that I am retiring. I hired her as a salesperson, but on her own she taught herself on our new computers and quickly became the best ever in composition.
Another member of our staff, Jennifer Benfield, has been with us for 35 years. What can I say? I’m just good at picking people. She had been with another publication and when I had the chance to employ her, I took it. She can do it all, from bookkeeping, to circulation, to society editor, and more. With Linda and Jennifer, I hit the jackpot.
But we need good news and advertising people too. Mark White had already proven himself as an excellent report with another publication and 30 years ago I talked him into coming with us. Mark is the “Dean” of reporters in this area. He knows more about the political structure than anybody I know, and his reporting is something to brag about.
Melissa Hudson, our advertising manager, has been working here for 23 years. At first when she applied, I didn’t have a sales position open, but she convinced me that she could do the job. And that she has done. I don’t know what we could have done without her. Out advertisers like her, and she serves them well.
As you can tell, we have had very little turnover. But when we needed to add an additional reporter, fortunately Timothy Wyatt answered the call. He had worked here previously as an intern and for the past few years he has done outstanding work as a news reporter.
I’ve mentioned our present staff, however, it is one-half the size that it was before the pandemic.
Many others have been employed here in the past 37 years and the one I miss the most is Joyce Morgan. She was our Williamsburg office manager before health problems forced her to give up the job. For many years I delighted in hearing Joyce give me the advertising totals on Wednesday. No matter whether the totals were strong or weak, Joyce made me feel good about them.
Then there are others like Arnold Stark, Gerald Cope, Frank Newman, Bill Cox, Herman Adams, Teresa Brooks, Jim McAlister, Mitch Howard, Eddie Arnold, Trent Knuckles, and of course, my wife Judy Estep, just to name a few. They have all contributed to making this newspaper number one in winning awards from the Kentucky Press Association.
I could write a book about the many adventures I’ve had while working here, like on a Sunday afternoon when Terry Forcht called me and talked about building a printing plant. He asked me what we should call it. I mulled it over in my mind a couple of seconds and he said, “Let’s call it Duke.” At that moment he was watching John Wayne on TV, and the name Duke became the name of our plant.
It was all new for us. We travelled to Crossville, Tennessee and west Kentucky looking at plants. I went to Toledo and Chicago. Terry built the building, bought the presses and at one time we were printing nine different newspapers.
But before closing I want to thank our present printer, J. Frank Publishing in London, operated by Jay Nolan, for the outstanding work they do for us after Terry, being the brilliant businessman he is, sold our printing plant and made life better for all of us.
This is the longest column I have ever written, but as I said I could write a book about all that has happened here. I can’t close without thanking all the staff at the Forcht Group. Such wonderful people to work with. Most of all I thank Terry Forcht for trusting me to lead this newspaper. I thank our advertisers and subscribers.
As long as I can, I will still be a part of this newspaper, writing columns or doing what is needed. But now let’s welcome Trevor Sherman to the task. Good luck Trevor!
