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Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 101

Publication:
Herald and Reviewi
Location:
Decatur, Illinois
Issue Date:
Page:
101
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Decatur, Illinois Sunday, March 29, 1998 HERALD REVIEW 9 1 Sj VafaJ fa By PEGGY HARRIS Special Projects Writer 1 a coin. The odd man out paid for coffee. They never stopped talking to each other." Reading and writing Robert remembers that the writ ing style at the Review was "pretty direct." Whereas, "the Herald before the merger, and af ter, is known for a more passion ate style." He remembers his father being called back from vacation to patch up a disagreement about an obituary that mentioned a man's brushes with the law. "It was all true, just a little more colorful than the family liked." The paper ran another obituary, leaving out the reference to misdeeds, so the family could save that copy for their family history. Local news in the Herald was found on page 3, while in the Review it was on the back page.

Merrill says there was no rock-solid rule about it. But he does remember a time when the editors broke policy and put a local story that had gone public on the front page. "About two-thirds of the readers missed it." Robert remembers that running local news on page 3 started in the 1930s, "when wire news was very important, and radios were not a primary news source. "We would showcase local news on page three of the Herald, the back page of the Review, with no advertising, a whole page, different type styles." A name "In 1938 we bought the radio station (WBJL). I was handy at that," Merrill says, referring to a hobby of ham radios when young.

Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers, Inc. had inherited the WBJL call letters in the transaction, but Lindsay wanted to spruce them up, make them more significant. "I took different call letters into Mr. Schaub and he kept turning them down. When I told him I wanted to try another, I imagine he said, 'Oh, Then I went in and said I would like to call it WSOY, and call Decatur the 'Soybean Capital of the iff Vt-' 'i: Our Your Future We've been serving the financial needs of central Illinois families for years.

Loans for any good reason cash available from s300 $50,000 lEHSHEDflS Quick Approval at any DECATUR 248 N. Park Call: Mike Smith, 429-2278 LINCOLN 51 1 Broadway Call: Gladys Elkins, 732-5626 Skis University President J. Roger Miller Lake Decatur and its silting problems. The city of Springfield learned something about it, and found a way to create much less of a water shed." Starting out Merrill Lindsay: "When I went to work, the first thing Dad had me do down there, was go to work in the editorial department. Every night at 7 p.m., I would walk down four blocks to figure out the won lost percentages for the American, National and Three-I leagues.

"I did something the AP operator couldn't do, since they didn't send percentages over the wire. I did it the hard way, added one to yesterday's standings and figured the new percentage." Merrill remembers he was "12, 13, 14 years old, somewhere in there." His job as newspaper statistician lasted just one year until the daily sporting paper in St. Louis came out with a card that figured the results. "For $1 you bought a card, and For example, a New Ventures department was started in 1996 to offer direct marketing and specialty publications, and the Herald Review went online 1-12 years ago. The most recent change in operations was the Nov.

29, 1997, conversion from contract haulers dropping off bundles at carriers' homes to carriers picking up their bundles from the Herald Review's new customer service center at 340 N. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. Gulledge, who started with Lee Enterprises immediately after graduating from Southern Illinois University, has worked for three Lee papers: the Southern Illinoisan, the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa, and the Herald Review. He says the future will bring more changes to the news business.

They'll be an increased trend toward customized news, where readers have more of an input into what they read in the newspaper or view in other news outlets. One new local development It -f Look At Me Nov! i -ci M'BM: 1 ft sj' fill i i ipimMM. i mmmm im Herald Review file photo in 1987 in Frank M. Lindsay Field. I lost my 50 cents a week." Coming together Merrill says the merger of the Decatur Herald Company with the Review Publishing Company was amicable.

"Fred Schaub and Ed Lindsay were good personal friends. They got along real well. And Dad and Howard Schaub, when the newspapers merged, were not hard to get together. Dad liked advertising and circulation. Mr.

Schaub liked editorial." Robert says friendship and respect made collaboration easier. "Every morning from 10 to 11, Fred and Ed and my father and someone else would walk across Main street to Bealls drug store. I remember being in the drug store when they came in. I recognized my father and gave a wave. He kept on talking to the other men.

They sat down in a booth, and talked in the booth for 45 minutes. My father waved to me, then each reached in his pocket, and flipped which he describes illustrates the community spirit he says Lee encourages. "We're going to lay out a community agenda. Four issues will be identified and addressed over an 18-month period." The paper will do more than write about the issues, Gulledge says. "We're going to get behind these issues and help solve them once and for all.

Decatur still faces an image problem, and (the Herald Review) wants to be part of the solution. "Lee believes in autonomy for its papers. We're owned by Lee, but have the autonomy to set our own priorities. We have an identity that is separate from the company." Today, Lee Enterprises Inc. publishes 21 daily newspapers and 73 weekly or specialty publications, and it operates 16 TV stations.

The Herald Review has over 200 full- and part-time employees. The paper's daily circulation is 39,227, Sunday circulation is 48,321. PEGGY HARRIS HUDDLE: Merrill Lindsay with Millikin there. He would put me on a street car" (to send me home). "My dad was given the job of selling the first bonds for Lake Decatur.

He had them sold in three days." Robert C. Schaub, "My father was people oriented. Fred tended to be more of a mechanic. He was maybe the country's leading authority on production efficiency for medium-sized newspapers. "My father lived in an age of interesting Schaub in 1967 people; he was really enthusiastic about telling people they needed their name on a park," although he never allowed his name to be put to one.

"The last story my father wrote was an anniversary story about NEW PRIORITIES: Michael Gulledge, named publisher in 1997, wants to see a more active role for the Herald Review. Other changes in the newspaper since 1982 have been the result of customers' changing needs. JLiWUllJJ JiJUU I ii 'Ji 11 St- x- i -V" I tU ii- of these area locations: MATTOON- 118 S. 17th Street Call: Rick Walker, 235-2274 HILLSBORO 309 S. Main St.

Call: Patsy Smith. 532-5534 Centre DECATUR Two names stand out in the Herald Review's history: Lindsay and Schaub. Three generations of each family were involved in the Lindsay-Schaub newspapers. Among them: John Lindsay (1835-1891), who wrote for the Review during its first year of publication in 1873 and later established a paper that became part of the Herald. Frank M.

Lindsay (1879-1972), who began as a newspaper carrier and rose to become Chairman of the Board Emeritus of Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers, Inc. Edward Lindsay (1899-1989), a grandson of John Lindsay who was editor of several Lindsay-Schaub newspapers. Frank M. "Merrill" Lindsay, Jr. (born 1910), who was president of Illinois Broadcasting Co.

and was chairman of the board of Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers, Inc. when Lee Enterprises bought the Herald and Review in 1979. Donald Lindsay (born 1922), Frank M. Lindsay's younger son, who held several posts with Lindsay-Schaub and is now vice-chairman of the board of Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Howard Churchill (H.C.) Schaub (1863-1947), a reporter and editor who became first president of Decatur Newspapers Inc.

after the Herald and Review merged. Fred VV. Schaub (1900-1991) and Robert C. Schaub (1904-1958), sons of H.C. who held several newsroom and management positions.

Robert D. Schaub (born 1927), son of F.W. Schaub, president of Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers when the Herald Review was sold. Robert C. Schaub Jr.

(born 1933), a reporter and editor who is now publisher of the Boone, Iowa, News Republican. For this special edition, Merrill Lindsay and Robert C. Schaub Jr. shared these memories. Remembering Dad Merrill Lindsay: "I remember when I was a little kid, the house at 763 S.

Webster St. that Dad built to get married in. He used to walk from that address to the Herald every morning. He would walk home every so often, and I would walk back with him. "At that time, the Transfer House was in Lincoln Square DECATUR When Lee Enterprises, Inc.

purchased the Decatur Herald and Decatur Daily Review from Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers, for $60.4 million in the fall of 1979, Lee company executives cited a similarity of "Midwest journalism" style. Key elements of the shared style were said to be family ownership and local focus. Michael Gulledge, the current publisher of the paper which has evolved under Lee leadership, says the Herald Review is still very much involved in promoting the local quality of life. A.W. Lee is considered the founding father behind Lee Enterprises, a Davenport, la.

based company. In 1890, Lee purchased the Ottumwa Courier in his home state of Iowa. In the late 1800s, Lee established a relationship with other Midwestern newspapers and their publishers. The loose affiliation of newspapers worked together to buy presses and other equipment. The individual papers acquired other papers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

In 1960, they joined together to form a corporation and purchased more papers in Montana. Lee purchased newspapers in Bismarck, N.D., in 1978 and Kansas City, in 1977. Before acquiring the Lindsay-Schaub papers, Lee had newspapers in Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Wisconsin and Kewanee, 111., and TV stations in Illinois, West Virginia, Hawaii, Iowa and Oregon. Along with the two Decatur papers in 1979, Lee Enterprises also acquired Lindsay-Schaub's Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale, the Edwardsville Intelligencer and the Midland Daily News in Michigan. Lee immediately sold the latter two papers.

Shortly after Lee Enterprises Inc. purchased them, the two Decatur papers were renamed the Herald Review and published in morning and evening editions. Eventually, it went to morning-only publication. Friday, June 4, 1982, was the final day for a daily and evening paper in Decatur. Bob Sampson wrote in his column on that day, future is not finite.

It keeps on coming and it has, in the eyes of many newspaper observers, passed the afternoon newspapers by." Declining afternoon subscriptions were the reason for the change, which mirrored other towns' decisions during that period to combine morning and evening editions. Anne Ellington, of Decatur suffered a stroke. After a hospital stay, Anne came to Aspen Ridge for rehabilitation with hopes of returning home. Upon admission, she required two staff members to assist her with all her activities of daily Irving needs such as eating, bathing, transferring and mobility. After 5 weeks of intensive physical, occupational and speech therapies, she was able to return home to live an independent life with her sister in Decatur.

AspenRidge f- 2530 NORTH MONROE STREET DECATUR, IL 62526 (217) 875-0920 I (Dim Tike '-s. i-s- "f'f If 1 :7 fwiE The employees of Caterpillar want to salute the Herald Review in its 125th Year in Decatur. -i Mining Construction Equipment Division nMir i i.

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