RUNNING A FAMILY OWNED NEWSPAPER

Craig Olsen of Neola, IA spoke to Club members about the business of running a family owned newspaper-the Gazette. With a circulation of about 2000 the Gazette is the largest weekly newspaper in western Iowa, Olsen explained. Additionally, copies are mailed to subscribers in 36 states, 6 countries, and to several servicemen around the world. Olsen noted he spent considerable amount of time following the sports activities of four area high schools. Olsen said that he tries to follow about fifty students from these high schools currently playing in college sports. He stated that this is really the fun part of the reporting and publishing work. The part that is more tedious is getting the papers in the right sequence for mail route delivery and keeping up with address changes. Olsen noted that there is more good news to publish, but there is not enough advertising to pay for it.