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

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

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

Amy Swanson
Special Projects Coordinator
specproj@mccookgazette.com
308-345-4500

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

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, a family-owned company operated by local families. Gene O. Morris, who had previously served as managing editor, returned to the Gazette in 1990 as publisher, and continues to serve in that capacity today.

The Gazette has 52 full and part-time employees and 107 newspaper carriers, who deliver the daily newspaper in 27 towns in Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas. The newspaper is published Monday through Friday afternoons and Saturday morning.

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."