By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
July 30, 2014. Indianapolis, Indiana. The American Agricultural Editors’ Association is announcing its national awards, including the Story of the Year. And the winner is: The High Plains Journal from Dodge City, Kansas. Today we’ll learn about this remarkable publication and its emphasis on quality and innovation.
Tom Taylor is publisher and Holly Martin is editor of the High Plains Journal, which was originally a local newspaper in Dodge City. During World War II, a young Air Force pilot named Joe Berkely came from Chicago to Dodge City to help train French pilots. He met and married a Kansas girl and decided to stay. He bought the Dodge City Journal in 1945. The paper had five employees and only 132 subscribers. Ouch.
Leaders in the community, including the local county extension agent, asked for agricultural coverage in the paper. In response to the community need, Joe included more ag stories and the paper grew. In 1949, the paper was renamed the High Plains Journal.
Tom Taylor grew up at Dodge City, went to K-State, and began a career in business. Joe Berkely brought Tom on board as a salesman for the High Plains Journal in 1974.
“When I began, we were doing hot typesetting,” Tom said. “Our photographs were produced in Oklahoma City which took five days lead time. Now it’s all digital. It’s a very streamlined process, from computer to plate.”
Holly Martin joined the Journal as a reporter after graduating from K-State in 1993. Her husband is from the nearby rural community of Bucklin, population 713 people. Now, that’s rural. Holly became editor in 2004.
Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: High Plains Journal”
