Bringing Good News to Almena, Kan.

When people in Almena, Kan., (pop. 423) need to check the time of the donkey basketball game or who said what at the town council meeting, they pick up the latest edition of the Prairie Dog Press.

All the hometown happenings are printed in the 14-page biweekly newspaper: births, deaths, anniversaries, crop reports, pancake suppers, library news, and 4-H events.

But the real scoop is behind the headlines. All of the newspaper’s writers, typesetters, paper folders, and paper “boys” are volunteers. Most are in their 70s and 80s. And even more amazing, this newspaper relies primarily on subscriptions, not advertising revenue.

After the city’s 102-year-old newspaper folded in 1990, townspeople realized that no news was bad news for this remote northwest Kansas town.

“It didn’t hit us until we needed it,” recalls Pat Ambrosier, a member of the newspaper’s board of directors. “Things would come up. You had to get the word out about a fund-raiser, or that someone got hurt and needed help with the crops, and there was no way to do it.”

Residents discovered how much they missed the newspaper while making plans for the town’s centennial in 1993, says Jean Leuszler, one of the paper’s typesetters. “There was a need to get a hold of people, and we didn’t have any way” to do that, Leuszler recalls. That’s when the idea was first suggested of publishing a newspaper.

Although people were eager to read the high school honor roll and to know what was cooking at the Senior Center, it didn’t seem possible to support a newspaper in a town with only a handful of businesses. Yet, a group of townspeople rolled up their sleeves and set out to do just that.

The Almena Irrigation District offered office space on Main Street. The city picked up the tab for water, sewer, and trash service. The local Masons and bank made cash donations. Volunteers salvaged chairs that had been discarded behind a pizza parlor. Columnists stepped forward with homespun commentaries, devotionals, and nature news.

There was another hurdle, says Clara Oman, 71, another volunteer typesetter. None of them had any newspaper experience. Four journalism students from Kansas State University came to the rescue. As part of the university’s Community Service Project, they moved to Almena for six weeks and gave the staff a crash course in community journalism.

“We didn’t know how big the response would be, but people were more than anxious to have Almena news,” recalls Leuszler, 75. Subscriptions started rolling in immediately with the first issue published May 27, 1994.

“We’ve been going strong ever since,” declares Oman. Today, the paper has 574 subscribers and operates solely on $16-a-year subscriptions and donations.

Every weekday morning, three or four regulars gather the news and design pages on donated computers. They print the articles in oversized type for checking by proofreader Marge Cate, 80. A finicky old-fashioned proofreader, she uses a red pen to lasso typos and grammatical slips.

Editor Laura Craig, 58, says advertisements are accepted from businesses, “but frankly, we don’t like to sacrifice our space.”

Most of the news is good, but the newspaper doesn’t shy away from controversy. “If it’s important and impacts our community, we print it,” Craig says. For instance, she editorialized against a proposed swine operation just outside town.

Publication day is every other Thursday when 10 or 12 show up to print the paper on a photocopier. In assembly-line fashion, the crew folds, creases, and staples each issue by hand. Reva Smith, 83, treats the staff to homemade applesauce cake or other goodies afterward. She helps deliver the in-town newspapers, too.

Since starting the Prairie Dog Press, the staff has moved into the building that was owned by the previous newspaper. Owner Helmi Moody donated the building. County inmates remodeled and updated it.

“For all of us, this newspaper is a labor of love,” Craig says. “We obviously feel good about what we’re doing or we wouldn’t be here.”

Marti Attoun is a freelance writer based in Joplin, Mo.

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