By Joey Young
Kansas Publishing Ventures
When we started Newton Now, I was in my late 20s and had no prior background in Newton. I had some contacts in Halstead and Sedgwick as the former “Sedgwick guy” (the nickname I was given by the former Harvey County Independent publisher), but that was about it as far as my experience in Harvey County.
Bruce (a real Sedgwick guy), Adam (another transplant) and Lindsey (at least she graduated from Bethel?) were going to be the leadership that brought a newspaper to life in Newton.
As a young idealistic journalist, I had a beef with hedge funds and how they ran newspapers, and I saw an opportunity in Newton to make a difference and show folks that places like Gatehouse/Gannett shouldn’t be in charge in our industry. I landed on Newton as a natural place to rebel and prove I was right about our industry, it being smack dab in between our Andale newspaper and our Hillsboro newspaper. I have always believed that hedge funds are bad for our industry, even if the people working within them aren’t always bad. That led to Newton Now.
I was naive and full of arrogance as to how hard what I was proposing was going to be, but I was too young and ignorant to know what we were risking, either.
Our whole team took a giant leap with me, and I appreciate all of them, especially those who are still with us 10 years later. Thank you.
I’ve been reflective lately—and with good reason.
Not only is our 10-year anniversary coming up for this newspaper, but I have also been given the gift of mentoring a young person in Reno County with his start-up newspaper in Hutchinson. On June 1, he and his librarian partner sold us their website, in hopes that we would do what we did here in Newton in the community I grew up in, Hutchinson.
I accepted this challenge but with a lot more thought and purpose this time. Unlike my younger self, I know exactly how hard this is going to be and realize the type of commitment a start-up is.
We are very excited about our project in Hutchinson. Lindsey and I found a local publisher to be business partners with, Jackson Swearer, and we have committed to staying in Newton personally. He helped find investors, and we are going to actually have a start-up with real capital. What a concept.
All this work has had me being reflective on our ramp up here in Harvey County and our first few years in business.
Unlike in Reno County, we boot-strapped this thing completely and made about a million mistakes in doing so along the way.
The community was hesitant to trust us when we first launched—with good reason, looking back—outside of a few folks who committed to the cause without good reason (I know who you all are and appreciate you dearly).
The majority of people wanted to wait and see if this whole thing was going to work out. Back then, I was resentful of that. Looking back, I think you were probably smart to wait.
The trust eventually came, and community members started to believe in what we were doing, and the subscriptions came along with that.
It’s funny. We were honored with the Victor Murdock Award for Investigative Journalism this past week. We have won that award twice in our short 10 years in business. That is a pretty good batting average, if you consider the behemoths we compete with each year for it.
They only give out one per year, and it only goes to one piece printed in a newspaper or on a website.
I believe the first story we were honored for back in 2017, right or wrong, was what actually gave us legitimacy in the eyes of this community.
We were the only publication in the state that found out the real reason Randy Riggs was let go without cause at that Newton City Commission meeting. It took us nearly a month to find it out, but we stuck to it, and we got the story eventually.
That kind of commitment to the truth and quality reporting, I believe, is the reason we are still here today.
An interesting story won’t pop up every year that needs that kind of investigation in communities the size we cover, but when they do need that kind of attention, we promise to give it the time and effort.
We got here through grit, grind and an unwillingness to die when it could have been easier to do so. Mostly, we got here through a long-term commitment to quality journalism and because you trust us and you know when something needs investigated, we will do it and do it well.
Thank you for your support. Through our new endeavor, I know now more than ever how much trust and support we have gotten—you all must have thought we were crazy. Trusting that rag-tag team 10 years ago must have been tough, but we appreciate it nonetheless.