My, how things have changed in my wonderful newspaper business over the past 42 years!

         A week ago at this time, I was mingling with the young, earnest reporters and the gray-haired publishers. Plus even a few of the retired silver-haired mossback curmudgeons (like myself) who could still manage to drive across the state in the dead of winter showed up.

         Laramie hosted the annual Wyoming Press Association convention for the first time in almost 50 years and, as near as I could tell, it was a big success,

         What struck me the most is not so much about what has changed in the 42 years that I have been attending this event, but what has stayed the same.

         Back in 1970, I was a 24-year old publisher eager to prove that we knew now to practice solid journalism in our little town of Lander. The big dogs were Russ Stout of Rawlins, Hugh Knoefel of Worland, Bernie Horton of Cheyenne, Bob and Roy Peck of Riverton, Dave Bonner of Powell, Ron Lytle of Lovell, Phil McAuley at the Casper Star Tribune, Milton Chilcott of Sheridan, Fred McCabe of Jackson, Jim Hicks of Buffalo, Bruce Kennedy of Greybull, Russ Allbaugh of Laramie, Chuck Richardson of Rock Springs, Mel Baldwin of Evanston, Adrian Reynolds of Green River, Gerry Bardo of Lusk, Dick Perue of Saratoga and Jack Nisselius of Gillette.

         There were others, too, that I don’t recall, but those folks were every bit as dedicated as I was to the goal of producing a good newspaper for our readers and if things worked out, making a little profit, too.

Sort of seemed to me that the old guard consisted of Stout, Knoefel, Allbaugh and Richardson.

         The press association was run by Nancy Shelton out of her home in Laramie.   

         I was so young and so new to Wyoming, it was impossible to try to figure out who owned what and where exactly their towns were.

         Then there was a group of good old boys who mainly worked for various state government outfits who invited me to join them for a drink.

         So in the bar at Little America the kid from Iowa got a lesson on how Wyoming folks drank at their annual press convention. Thanks to Ray Savage, Randy Wagner, Gene Bryan, Clyde Douglass and others, I spent the next 12 hours holed up in my room suffering from the worst hangover of my life.

         I barely emerged in time for the big awards banquet Saturday night when that same foursome inquired: “Bill, where have you been?” Never again, I vowed.

         So now, four decades later, many things have also remained the same as they were back in those old days. The reporters are just as inquisitive and the goal of trying to sell more advertising to our customers is just as important as it was way back when.

Most publishers are concerned about how many subscribers they have and how to keep them. 

The need of having a strong internet presence is a huge topic today along with the corresponding question of how in the heck can we make any money giving our product away on the net? Another big changes is the constant (but incorrect) assumption that for some reason, newspapers are dinosaurs.  

Despite obstacles and hurdles, Wyoming‘s newspapers are strong, profitable and serving their communities well.

         President of the WPA this year has been Reed Eckhardt of the Cheyenne Tribune-Eagle with Patrick Murphy of the Sheridan Press as vice- president. Bob Bonnar of Newcastle of the WPA board has done some yeoman work helping with open meetings legislation this past year. Former Associated Press writer Jim Angell is the executive who runs the WPA from its office in Cheyenne.

         A staple at the annual convention is the appearance by the governor. At this venue, I have asked questions of Stan Hathaway, Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan, Jim Geringer, Dave Freudenthal and now, Matt Mead. Well, sometimes it still does feel the same.

         Outside of the internet issues, the biggest change in the press meeting is now two-thirds of the participants are women. Four decades ago, I doubt if it were a fourth. 

         There used to be clouds of cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke everywhere in those bad old good old days. Not any more, thankfully.

         Ken Smith, who now heads the Journalism Dept. at University of Wyoming told me that the numbers of students wanting a career in journalism is at an all-time high, despite this supposedly downtown in newspaper interest. The future is bright for anyone with strong communication skills was my answer to his question about why is this happening?

         Ken is a former publisher of the Green River Star. I recruited him from Ames, Iowa, to come to the Wyoming back in 1978. And now here we are.

         I have never missed a press convention and always felt that it provided both a chance to learn new skills but most importantly, renew old acquaintances and make new ones.

         Like so many statewide organizations, the WPA serves a group of like-minded and energetic people. These are folks who literally work hundreds of miles away from each other, but end up providing that similarly important product to their communities – the hometown community newspaper.