Editor’s Notebook

A dear friend of this newspaper, Bob Oldham, was laid to rest this week in Hastings. Though he left the newspaper’s full-time employ on Dec. 31, 1971, he never stopped looking out for us.

Bob began his employment with The Superior Express as a high school student and eventually became a competent Linotype operator. Few people today know what a Linotype is but Thomas Edison classified it as one of man’s seven greatest mechanical inventions. The machine was used to transform molten lead into words used in the letterpress printing method. The machines were cantankerous and a printing industry guideline said it took an operator seven years to perfect their Linotype skills.

The machines were used around the world and this newspaper had three, the oldest of which is on display in the Nuckolls County Museum. With the conversion to the offset method of printing in May of 1970, we had less call to use the Linotype and eventually in the mid-1980s our last one was moved out to allow for the expansion of our newspaper press.

In 1972 Bob left Superior for Hastings and a commercial printing company that still had need of a Linotype operator. He would return to Superior on weekends to catch us on our Linotype work. In Bob the Hastings firm got one of the best. But the times caught up with them, like it did for us. Their Linotype was moved out and Bob became a press operator.

After the conversion to the offset printing method, Bob helped layout the paper, wrote sports and sold advertising. For Friday night football, we would both take cameras and head to area games. When the schedules were right, we could cover the first half in one town and then speed to a nearby town to cover the second half. It was easiest in September when some schools started their games and 7:30 and others at 8.

When he was working here full-time, the fall sports season began the Friday after Labor Day. In those days, the schools didn’t offer girls sports, but we had 10 high schools in our coverage area. Before Labor Day, we went to a football practice at each school and took pictures of the football team and their cheerleaders. Those picture taking days were usually before the start of school. Our goal was to prepare a special section for inclusion in the paper printed the week of the first game.

While I took the pictures, Bob talked with the coaches and gathered information for a preseason preview story. The first year we only sold advertising for the special section in Superior. It was Bob’s idea to expand the section and include advertising from the other communities.

We arrived in Republic before the students were ready and had some time to wait. Bob suggested the Republic businesses might be interested in advertising in the section. We went to the business district and divided the town. He went one way and I went the other. We were met with such support, it became standard procedure to solicit advertising from the businesses in the towns where the schools were located. Whenever possible, we combined picture taking and ad sales.

One year the fall sports section filled 16 pages and doubled the size and revenue of that week’s paper.

After moving to Hastings, Bob frequently stopped by to visit his friends at The Express and share things he had learned about the printing trade.

Over the years we learned much from him. When we got behind in the commercial printing department, we knew we could call on Bob to lend a hand.

After putting a full week of work in at Hastings, he would drive to Superior for weekend work. As he often was the first one to work in the morning, he carried a key to the building. To maximize his production, he brought his own lunch and ate while monitoring a running press.

When problems or new challenges arise, we are going to miss not being able to call on Bob.

——————

Elsewhere in this issue, we print the first story distributed by a new Nebraska publishing venture known as the Flatwater Free Press. The Flatwater Free Press is one of a number of non-profit ventures being founded around the United States to combat shrinking newsrooms.

Jim Vokal, the excutive director of Flatwater Free Press previously worked for the Omaha World-Herald and USA Today.

The Nebraska media landscape has gone though tremendous change in recent years. In my years with The Express, I have believed our readers should also subscribe to one or more daily newspapers and thus have tried to publish the stories the dailies weren’t. When I was growing up, my parents suscribed to two weeklies and four dailies. Living in the country we didn’t get the papers until the rural mail man delivered them about noon and so they were not read until evening. But my grandparents lived in Superior and they got their papers delivered via a carrier boy before 7 a.m. each day. They devoured the morning papers soon after their arrival.

But that is hard to do today. Carriers no longer deliver newspapers to Superior residents. Our daily paper choice involve reading over the internet or settling for late delivery via the U.S. Mail.

Today the Flatwater Free Press is one of 330 nonprofit, independent newsrooms around the county and it is offering its content to this newspaper. We will review the offerings and selectively publish what we believe will interest our readers. Readers will also be able to subscribe to the service and have the stories delivered via the internet.

One of the key contributors to the Flatwater Free Press is Matt Hansen from nearby Red Cloud. An excellent reporter and writer, he was until recently employed by the Omaha World-Herald.