Star News has a long history of serving Taylor County
The history of The Star News coincides with the history of Taylor County, in that both were born in 1875.
The first newspaper in Taylor County — the Taylor County News — was published on March 31, 1875 by the two Ogden brothers.
Copies of that first issue are missing, but the second issue — Vol. 1 No. 2 — published on April 7 of that year, are on microfilm and can be viewed at the Medford Library.
That second issue consisted of four pages, of six columns each. The columns were about 18 inches long and 2-1/4 inches wide.
The Front Page was devoted entirely to national news.
Page 2 consisted of local ads and state news
Half of Page 3 was devoted to local advertising and the other half to local news. Most of the news items were only a paragraph long. There were also minutes published of the first town and judicial election in the Town of Medford.
There's also a paragraph telling of the very first wedding in Taylor County, but it doesn't say who got married. It only states that "The first wedding in Taylor County took place at the Medford House last Saturday night. Judge Prink officiated."
Another item tells that "men from all over the country are flocking to Taylor County to settle. "Let them come. There is room. Land is cheap. Lumber is plenty. And we want the land cultivated," the paper states.
There's also an item calling attention to a sign in the News office stating that smoking is not allowed. "Tobacco smoke is very offensive to those who are not habituated to the use of the weed."
Page 4 is all state, national and international news again.
The Ogden brothers published the paper for about 10 months, when one of the brothers, John, took sole possession of the paper.
He began using illustrations in May 1876, showing pictures of the Centennial Exhibition buildings in Philadelphia. Thereafter, pictures of prominent people, illustrations of various types, and map, began appearing frequently.
In 1877, subscription rates were $1.50 a year, paid in advance.
The Taylor County News got competition in March 1876 when G. L. Loope started the Taylor County Star. This paper passed to E. R. Prink a month later, and was edited by Ed Gordon and G. M. Patchen until December 1876, when S. A. Gorning became editor. Gorning was followed by E. B. Morley in June 1877, and on December 1, 1877, Singleton B. Hubbell bought both papers and combined them as the Taylor County Star and News in partnership with E. B. Morley. After about eight months, Morley left and Edgar T. Wheelock joined the paper. In September 1879, Wheelock took sole possession and ran the paper until 1895.
Wheelock proved to be a fine writer and the type of person who took a back seat to no one. He had a fiery editorial voice and a good sense of humor. The Star and News advanced rapidly under his direction, and he soon was printing an eight-page paper. There was usually around four columns of local news, headed "Localisms," along with a column of news from other towns on the Soo Line, which was called 'Up and Down the Line."
The early issues contained a great deal of state, national and world news simply because there were no daily newspapers in the area at the time, because there wasn't all that much local news to print, and because the small staff didn't have the time needed to both gather the news and set it in type. In those days, type was set by hand, letter by letter.
During that time the Taylor County Star and News consisted mainly of syndicated features and news taken from other newspapers. There was less than a page of local news, even after 1900. National news was listed by sections — West, East, North South — while there was also foreign news and miscelleanous feature material. There was no local news on the front page, which was set up first, and no last minute news. Local news wasn't placed on the front page until shortly after the turn of the century.Advertising developed slowly, but by the mid-80s there were ads on seven or eight pages in the paper, many run by local merchants.
For the next several years, thanks to the development of the lumbering industry, the opening of free homestead lands, immigration and colonization agencies, letters from friends and relatives, and the newly established Wisconsin Central Railroad, a steady stream of settlers put down their roots in Taylor County.
Patent medicine ads were big in those days, and one such ad claimed to cure kidney disorders, weak nerves, rheumatism, Bright's disease, diabetes, liver trouble, constipation, malaria, and just about everything else.
A staunch Republican, Wheelock ran the speeches of the Republican candidate for president, Grover Cleveland, on the front page — word for word — while Democratic candidate got little or no mention. And he headed an article on Cleveland's inauguration "The Great Day," with five headlines and subheads, along with an entire page of news.
The feature attraction of the paper, though, was a battle between Wheelock and Joseph Brucker, the editor of Medford's German paper — Der Waldbote. Wheelock attacked Brucker, and even the county treasurer, John Gay, over rights to print the county's delinquent tax list. Both papers wanted this right because about $600 in revenue was involved.
In one issue, Wheelock roared: "The Waldbotte is an ass," and proceeded to viciously tear apart both the paper and its editor.
He even hit the county treasurer, writing: "John Gay hasn't been sued yet, and is allowed to walk around on the streets. He should be thankful that he is permitted to live."
Wheelock's crowning touch was: "We never yet have thought that the editor of the Waldbotte was a fool, but if he continues to attempt to express himself in English — horrible English at that — the conviction will be forced upon us that he is either an idiot or a lunatic.
"Like a mock hero in a burlesque tragedy, he struts up and down the stage of life, magnifies ant hills into mountains, saws the air, and makes a blamed spectacle of himself." Wheelock then continued to attack Brucker so violently that it must have deflated him because nothing more was ever made of the affair in the Star and News.
In 1895, Wheelock left the paper to join the Milwaukee Sentinel as an editorial writer, and Peter Danielson, a printer from Glidden, was hired to run the Star and News.
Danielson did little to improve local news coverage, as most of the news still consisted of national and world events, but he did increase the size of the paper to 12 pages. He also began printing classifieds on the front page, and started sports coverage with stories on local horse races.
Two other German language newspapers were started in Medford during those years — the Duetsche Zeitung in 1887, which lasted four years, and Der Her Vetter in 1903, which failed after only one year.
In 1887, the Medford Sentinel appeared, followed two years later by the Medford Republican. The two papers combined in 1901 and consolidated with the Star and News shortly thereafter.
J. H. Waggoner and J. E. Harris ran the Star and News from November 1901 until September 1902, and Waggoner and W. S. Withers ran it from September 1902 until October 1904. Then Withers ran it until June 1907 when Arthur J. Latton took it over.
From 1904 until the 1930s, the paper was Progressive Reublician in politics.
The paper did not stop printing national and world news directly from dailes until after the First World War, but the sensational advertising — especially patent medicine ads — began dying out after the turn of the century. Early in the 1900s local news was given more and more prominent display on the front page.
In 1919, Will Conrad and family arrived in Medford, and purchased the half interest in the paper from A. J. Latton. In April 1923, he purchased Latton's interest to begin a long career as publisher here.
He spruced up the want ad section, began devoting the entire front page to local news, and introduced modern type styles. Several new columns soon appeared, and a special Want Ad page was developed that would soon gain national recognition.
In 1929, the Star News absorbed the Taylor County Leader which had been operating since 1921. Two other Medford papers — the Northern Independent and the Weekly Record — were started up and existed for a brief period, but by the 1930s the Star News and the Rib Lake Herald were the only two papers in the county.
Although Conrad was to become widely known for his promotion of classified advertising — the Want Ads — he also won wide acclaim for his homey type of editorials and accounts of his travels, during which he constantly boosted his paper, Medford, northern Wisconsin, and the dairy industry.
In 1932, Conrad was elected president of the Wisconsin Press Association, and the Star News was elected to a place on the 1932 All-American Weekly News Eleven by John Casey, an authority on weekly newspapers from the University of Oklahoma.
By 1936, the paper had a Vox Pop section (Latin for Voice of the People), and the paper, which now had a staff of eight, sold for $2 per year or four cents a copy. Circulation was about 3,800 copies a week, and editions frequently reached 16 pages.
Conrad and the Star News continued to receive state and national recognition, and as the paper's prosperity grew the staff climed to 14 persons by 1939. Both the paper and Conrad received numerous awards for journalistic excellence.
A Blue Streak Linotype was installed in 1939, which could set not only body type (news type) but larger headlines as well. A Linotype had probably been used beginning sometime in the teens or early 20s.
During World War II, the paper took measures to conserve newsprint to help the war effort, and a great deal of the news concerned the activities of Taylor County servicemen.
A Kluge job press was installed in 1943, and by 1951 when the Star News press run had reached 5,500, the shop also boasted a new Diamond power operated paper cutter which had been added in 1949.
Bert Amacher, who had first joined the paper in 1926, managed the Star News from 1946 until 1975.
Frank Hirsch, who had started with the Star News as a printer in 1937, became editor in 1951. He replaced Norbert "Nick" Nolan who had served as editor since 1948. Other editors in the late 1930s and early 1940s included Doyle Buckles, Vernon Orton and Art Wichern. Conrad himself served for many years as editor AND publisher.
On March 8, 1951, Conrad was killed in an auto accident near Abbotsord.
Soon after Conrad's death, a Star News Partnership was formed by his four surviving sons and daughters. Later that year a new press was installed, and the single copy cost of the paper was now 10 cents.
During the middle and late Fifties, the construction of three large supermarkets in Medford caused the amount of display advertising to increase, and during that time Star News photographers also began using a Polaroid camera, resulting in the paper printing as many as five photos on the front page per issue.
In February 1959, The Star News moved out of its building on Main Street (where the Medford Outlet Store is now located) and into its present location on Wisconsin Avenue. The building was purchased in 1958 from Harold and Elizabeth Pernsteiner.
The Star News was sold to a group of stockholders in 1964, and was incorporated with Bert Amacher, president and publisher; Frank Hirsch, vice president and editor, and Corliss Jensen and Bob Klinner of Medford, Frank Nikolay of Abbotsford, and Don Johnson of Neillsville.
By September 1973, when the Rib Lake Herald closed its doors, The Star News was the only newspaper in Taylor County.
In 1975, Bob Anderson was hired by the stockholders to manage the paper, and when Frank Hirsch retired in 1975, Tom Anderson took over as editor. Although retired, Hirsch wrote his weekly column, "Frankly Speaking," until 1986.
At the time, The Star News was one of the largest weeklies in the state, averaging 32 broadsheet pages week, with an average press run of 7,400 copies.
In April 1975 ‚ the 100th anniversary of the paper — The Star News began using the new photo-offset method of printing which, among other things, allowed extensive use of photos.
In 1980, Tom Anderson left and was succeeded as editor by Mitch Potter.
In early 1983, The Star News changed its format from a broadsheet publication to a tabloid sized newspaper. In April 1984, Potter left The Star News, being replaced by Scott Schultz of Loyal, and Don Woerpel became editor that June.
Jay and Carol O'Leary bought the paper, and the Star News Shopper, in August 1986, although Bob Anderson continued to be the manager.
At the time, the O'Learys owned the Tribune-Phonograph of Abbotsford-Colby, and the Record-Review of Edgar and Marathon, as well as the Central Wisconsin Shopper.
Jay O'Leary had been experimenting with computers for several years — he was so knowledgeable about computers and computer programs, that he usually had to explain new equipment and software programs to computer dealers —and The Star News soon became one of the first newspapers in the state, daily or weekly, to use computers for typesetting and scanning photographs.
The Star News began using pagination — designing and making up newspaper pages entirely on a computer — in 1992, becoming one of the first, if not THE first weekly newspaper in the state to do so.
1992 was also the year that Bob Anderson retired as manager, although he continued to write his weekly Common 'Tater column until 1997.
Today, QuarkXpress software is used to design pages, while news copy is set on a Macintosh Microsoft Word program and ad copy is set on Multi-Ad Creator software program.
Pages are printed on a high-speed laser printer, and photographs, negatives and prints, are scanned and stored in a computer, and then retrieved electronically and imported directly into the newspaper pages when they're made up.
In 1997, we began using digital cameras to supplement our more traditional cameras. The digital cameras allow us to instantly view the photo we're taking, and the camera is then plugged into a computer where the photo is stored until needed. It also extended our capabilities for doing color photographs.
In May of 1997, Jay O'Leary died, and his widow, Carol, and daughter Kris, took over management of The Star News.
Don Woerpel retired as editor in 1999 after 17 years with The Star News. Under his leadership, the newspaper won several state and national journalistic excellence awards. The first woman editor, Laurie Sacho, stepped into Don’s shoes after his retirement, and, under the guidance of Carol and Kris O’Leary, took the newspaper into the new millenium and the 125th anniversary of The Star News.
Brian Wilson was named News Editor in spring 2005 and ushered in a new era of improved page layout and more focused coverage.