Staff members

Shary Skiles
Publisher
sskiles@ocsmccook.com
308-345-4500

Bruce Crosby
Editor
editor@mccookgazette.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 120

Dawn Cribbs
Associate Editor
editor2@ocsmccook.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 119

Lorri Sughroue
City Editor
cityed@ocsmccook.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 118

John J. Mesh
Sports Editor
sports@mccookgazette.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 114

Jeremy Blomstedt
Special Projects
specproj@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500 ext 114

Billie Cole
Personal News
reporter@mccookgazette.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 117

Connie Jo Discoe
Regional Editor
regionalnews@mccookgazette.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 113

Dee Shafer
Creative Promotions Director
adsales2@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500 ext 107

Cody Dame
Online Director
mccookgazette@gmail.com
308-345-4500

Lavonne Clapp
Sales Representative
308-345-4500 ext 130

Karry Coburn
Sales Representative
adsales3@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500 ext 127

Tyler Richardson
Sales Representative
adsales5@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500 ext 129

Jim Turcotte
Sales Representative
adsales4@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500 ext 111

Sarah Bryce
Classified Advertising
classifieds@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500

Lloyd Shields
Production Manager
308-345-4500 ext 131

Brenda Janousek
Circulation
circulation@mccookgazette.com
(308) 345-4500 ext 109

Marybeth Roschewski
Circulation Manager
circmgr@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500

The Gazette has been serving McCook and the Golden Plains of Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas since 1911. The newspaper was founded by Harry Strunk and a partner, Burris Stewart. Apparently depressed over additional debt and family problems, Mr. Stewart committed suicide on the day the second issue was printed.

Mr. Strunk, only 19 at the time of the Gazette's origin, persevered in the face of adversity and continued to serve as the newspaper's publisher until his death in 1960.

First known as the Red Willow County Gazette, the newspaper started as a weekly and evolved into a semi-weekly and tri-weekly publication before becoming a daily in 1924. Five years later, in 1929, the Gazette became the first newspaper in the world to be regularly delivered by airplane. Called "The Newsboy," the plane dropped newspapers in area towns for several months before being damaged in a windstorm and taken out of service.

After serving in the Korean War and graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Harry Strunk's son, Allen, returned to McCook and succeeded his father as publisher. Under Allen Strunk's direction, the Gazette converted to the offset method of printing and became one of the most circulated dailies in the nation in counties with less than 15,000 population.

On Dec. 31, 1986, the Strunk family sold the Gazette to Gozia-Driver Media, a company which was later re-incorporated as US Media Group, Inc. Then, in 1997, the Gazette became part of Rust Communications.

The Gazette's Publisher, Sharyn Skiles, has been with the company since 1988, originally servings as Business Manager. Through the years, she has assumed duties in circulation, advertising, editorial, and production. She became General Manager in 2004 and Publisher in 2007.

The Gazette has 47 full and part-time employees and 81 newspaper carriers, who deliver the daily newspaper in 27 towns in Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas. The newspaper is published Monday through Friday afternoons.

The newspaper's slogan -- printed daily in the masthead and enscribed in a plaque at the front door -- is: "Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in this world."