30 - My Newspaper Life

Book excerpt: Ray Hansen grew up in Depression Nebraska. At the age of seventeen during World War II, he enlisted in the Navy and served with the Seabees on Guam. Immediately after returning home, he entered the University of Nebraska, studied journalism while working nights on the Lincoln Star. He graduated in three years, on D-Day 1949. His career took him promptly to Washington, DC, where he worked ten years and saved $10,000. With that money, he went to Wisconsin, bought his first newspaper, and learned to print it with hot metal via Linotype and a flatbed press. He paid off the mortgage in five years and sold the paper for more than twice what he paid for it. Then came the offset revolution, publishing cold type via new expensive web presses. During those years, he married, raised a family, and bought and sold three more newspapers in Kansas and Arkansas. He concluded his career in upstate New York on the cusp of the twenty-first century. He witnessed the growth and skirmishes of community newspapers over seven decades. Now in his ninety-second year, he has many interesting tales to tell and relates them with flair and honesty in 30—My Newspaper Life.