YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
by Christine Ballew-Gonzales
SBJ Contributing Writer
The Marshfield Mail, Webster County's 108-year-old weekly newspaper, has been sold to Community Publishers Inc. of Missouri, according to Gordon Nordquist, current owner of the newspaper. CPI's ownership of the paper will take effect July 1, Nordquist said.
But faithful readers, advertisers and employees of the Mail shouldn't expect a corporate shakeup to take place when CPI assumes control of the newspaper, according to Steve Trolinger, president of CPI. Trolinger said it was the Mail's high quality content that first caught the attention of CPI, and the company has no intention of changing a winning game.
"It's an excellent newspaper in a really good town," Trolinger said. The Marshfield Mail will be the 12th newspaper owned by the Bentonville, Ark.,-based group, which also owns the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, the Buffalo Reflex and the Stockton Republican.
Dave Berry, vice president of CPI and publisher of the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, will manage the Mail along with CPI's other Missouri publications. Trolinger, who said that CPI first began to express an interest in acquiring the Mail a few months ago, said readers can expect a seamless transition from the old owner to the new.
No one saw the sale of the newspaper coming, including Nordquist. Although groups interested in buying the paper had approached him before, the right timing and circumstances didn't present themselves until CPI contacted him this spring.
"It just seemed like it was the right time," Nordquist said. "When you've been in the trenches as long as I've been ... I just knew it was time. I really felt it was in the best interest of the paper for me to step aside."
Nordquist, who has published the Mail for the past 14 years, said that while the sale of the newspaper leaves him feeling nostalgic, he is proud of the legacy he is passing on to CPI.
"I've had a good 14 years," he said. "I've been very productive. We've established an editorial voice." The Mail's content and editorial foundation helped the Mail garner a host of Missouri Press Association awards, including a Gold Cup in the mid-1990s.
Nordquist said the Mail has also been credited for bringing important local issues to the attention of Webster County residents.
"One of the best accomplishments I've seen in Marshfield and Webster County is the overwhelming support to build a new high school," he said. "A lot of people called and attributed that to the Mail, because we took the lead and supported that. That really made me feel good."
Nordquist said he has many memories of his time steering the Mail, and a few recollections in particular stand out. The publisher remembers well the day in 1987 when he first heard the news that the Schnicks, an Elkland family, had been slain.
"I was the only one in the newsroom at the time," he said. "I grabbed my camera and went to the murder scene."
Nordquist said it was an eerie and gruesome scene, one that included the family's father, the sole survivor, pinning the murder on one of the children. The father was later found to be the culprit.
Nordquist also recalled more celebratory times at the newspaper, such as President George Bush's visit to Marshfield, when the local publisher was given top position in the press corps.
Both events had news bureaus and television networks from around the country calling the Marshfield Mail.
Newspaper groups on the whole don't have a very good reputation, Nordquist said and with good reason. "So many newspapers are being gobbled up by ruthless groups who buy them up, wring them out and then sell them," he said.
But Nordquist felt comfortable selling to CPI, which owns newspapers in the area and does not belong to some distant entity across the country. This was important to Nordquist, who said that he was very concerned about the future of the employees of the Mail.
"When you're an independent, your employees are family," he said. "Their jobs are secure[[In-content Ad]]
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