Starting my 36th year as publisher of this newspaper

Slow down! I’m talking to Father Time as this week I start my 36th year at this newspaper. It has gone so fast.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

It seems like yesterday that I was talking to Terry Forcht about taking the job as publisher of the Whitley Republican.

In order to take the position I suggested that we start a sister paper in Corbin. He offered full support of the idea and even gave me a book to read written by Al Neuhart who started USA Today, which at that time was just two years old. That is how we came up with the name of our new product, Corbin! This Week.

It was 1987 and I had just started the most stressful time of my life. Terry had provided us with the latest equipment to publish our two newspapers. The Mac Plus computers were brand new to the industry and we started with them. There were a few problems due to the fact that nobody had ever been trained to operate them.

It was 2 a.m. on our first production night. After observing our situation I looked out the window of our office on South Second Street in Williamsburg and asked myself the question, “What have I done,” referring to accepting the offer to become publisher.

We couldn’t even get the computers to print, but after calling the salesman in another city we finally got the job done.

I was 48 years old with three daughters and a wife to take care of and I was well aware of the task of competing with a daily newspaper in Corbin. Nobody had ever succeeded, but several had tried.

But when we did get going there was no stopping us. In August of 1987 we published the first full-color newspaper in the area with the introduction of Corbin! This Week.

Our circulation started to climb immediately. We went from being the newspaper with the smallest circulation in the tri-county area to the largest. We kept climbing until we were the largest weekly in the state.

In 1992 we merged the Whitley Republican and Corbin! This Week into one newspaper, the News Journal. We have won many awards in newspaper contests sponsored by the Kentucky Press Association. In the last six years, for example, we have won first place five of those six years.

I have done a lot of self congratulations and that is because of the excellent staff I have had and the support from Terry Forcht. I hope all of you who read our newspaper are aware that these people have produced a product that Whitley County can be proud of. I thank you for the support you have given us and encourage you to keep reading the News Journal!