“Hello, We’re Glad To Be Back Home,” was the headline on Page 1 of the June 1, 1945, edition of the Tribune-News.
V.P. and Ethel Richards, longtime residents of the area, had moved back to Joseph City and purchased the Holbrook Tribune-News and The Winslow Mail. The story said, “In assuming operation of The Winslow Mail and Holbrook Tribune-News, the only thought that comes to mind is “Hello, we’re glad to be back home in Navajo County.”
Richards was born on Oct. 1, 1901, in Joseph City. His parents were original settlers along the Little Colorado River valley. Because he grew up in Navajo County, Richards knew the lay of the land, both its geographic and political features, and because of his love of the area, he would be publisher of the papers longer than anyone else, until Paul Barger became publisher in 1969.
V.P. shared his first experience with the newspaper business in an article during the 10-year anniversary of his purchase of the papers. He said, “Whether it was the so-called ‘printer’s bug’ or just plain ‘typelice,’ the editor and publisher of the Holbrook Tribune-News recalled this week he was bitten more than 40 years ago–in the plant of the late Snowflake Herald, then under the personal management of Robert C. Bob Smith.”
While living in Joseph City, Richards and his parents headed to Snowflake for the dedication of the Snowflake Stake Academy, and to listen to President Joseph F. Smith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak. While there he went to visit his Uncle Franz Westover, who worked in the Herald’s backshop.
Richards said, “I saw Albert Smith ‘kicking’ a jobber printing these programs, and I was fascinated. The manager of the plant was John Tinker, one of the old-school, and to see that I was properly entertained and occupied, he perched me on a high stool, handed me a ‘stick’ and showed me how to hand-set type. I managed one paragraph or so during the afternoon.” Richards went on to say, “The bug had bitten, although I didn’t realize it at the time.”
After leaving home, Richards worked throughout the state. In 1920, he worked for the Southern Arizona Bank & Trust Company, and later for the First National Bank of Nogales. He took his first newspaper job in 1921 at the Nogales Morning Democrat. From 1922 to 1933, he worked for the Santa Fe Railroad.
In 1932, Richards took a job with The Winslow Daily Mail, then owned by the Giragis, as a reporter. Several years later, he went to work for the Graham County Guardian and the Copper Era as managing editor.
On May 25, 1945, V.P. and Ethel Richards, with the help of the First National Bank of Holbrook, purchased the Holbrook Tribune-News, The Winslow Mail and, it would appear, the rights to publish the Snowflake Herald, from the Giragi brothers. Richards acknowledged the work of his previous employers by saying, “In the newspapers we will attempt to maintain the high standards so ably maintained by their owners (Giragis) of the past 18 years.” Moving back into the ancestral family home, Richards said it would be “convenient to our two newspapers.”
Two years later, his brother, J. Morris, joined them and became editor of The Winslow Mail. In September 1963, the brothers resurrected the Snowflake Herald. V.P. and J. Morris shared the work of publishing the Herald. In December 1941, the production of the Herald was moved to Holbrook. J. Morris had a weekly column called “Straws In The Wind,” in which he kept the citizens of Navajo County informed of the goings on in the state capitol.
V.P. Richards, like most newspaper publishers, believed in service to his community. Among some of his accomplishments was his election to the Arizona State Senate in 1942. He worked hard for the state’s water rights, and better roads and highways.
Respected by the members of his profession, Richards was twice elected president of the Arizona Newspaper Association, and served as president of the Arizona Press Club. In 1965, the Arizona Newspaper Association named him Master Editor-Publisher.
Within a year and a half, (Feb. 5, 1965) of starting the Snowflake Herald and another paper called the White Mountain Pioneer, the Richards sold all four publications to Four Corners Development Co. Stockholders in the company included Mabel J. Nagel, Robert T. Jenkins, James H. Nagel and J. Morris Richards, all of Winslow, and S.M. Nations of Wichita, Kan.
On Oct. 8, 1965, Victor Paul “V.P.” Richards died in the Holbrook Hospital at age 64. His farewell editorial eight months earlier summed up his feelings to the community he loved. “Coming to a pause (perhaps an end) the chosen field of county newspaper publishing, editing and ownership, near the end of 20 years of such activity, is a little fearful, because of the responsibilities it brings to bear on us of attempting to recall the gratitude owed so many people.”
On Feb. 5, 1965, the front pages of all four papers announced the sale of the company to Four Corners Development. Mac Nations served as editor of the Holbrook paper from the fall of 1964 until early 1965. Jay Crook arrived in Holbrook from Phoenix to become managing editor of the Tribune-News. J.M. Richards, who was a stockholder in the new company and had been editor of The Winslow Mail for 18 years, would now become editor of the Snowflake Herald and the White Mountain Pioneer. A few months later, the Pioneer ceased publication.
Mabel Nagel, a longtime resident of Winslow, had a history of service to the community. Serving on the city council as chairman of the planning and zoning commission, as well as running Winslow’s first lumber and timber company, Mrs. Nagel was a busy woman. Added to the list was the oversight of four newspapers.
Janet Downs, a reporter for the papers, interviewed Alan Grace in January 1982 about his time as general manager of the papers.
The article read in part, “It seems that poor management and impractical, expensive publishing practices drove The Winslow Mail and Holbrook Tribune to hard times financially during the mid-‘60s. Expenses reached $14,000 per month, compared to the $7,500 income, when general business manager Alan Grace was asked to join the staff in April or May of 1965, as he recalls it.
“Jay Crook was the editor of the Holbrook papers then, but he and three other editors lost their jobs when Grace cut the payroll drastically to save the business.
“’I was not a very popular person then,’ Grace noted when he recalled the ‘dark, dreary days’ as he characterized his first few months at the old Nagel Lumber Co. office in Winslow.
“Grace served as editor of the Holbrook Tribune-News in the fall of 1965 and held both jobs, as general manager in Winslow and editor in Holbrook, until September 1967.”
Almost three years to the day of the papers’ purchase, the Four Corners Development Company sold the Holbrook Tribune-News, The Winslow Mail and the Snowflake Herald to the Wrights. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Wright, along with her parents, Robert and Margaret Cribbs, owners of the Camarillo (California) Daily News, had been in the publishing business for many years. The Wrights and Cribbs also owned the Price (Utah) Sun Advocate. Wright was publisher from Feb. 1, 1968, until Aug. 21, 1969.
In 1969, The Winslow Mail, Holbrook Tribune-News and the Snowflake Herald were purchased by Paul and June Barger, who came to the area from Carpinteria, Calif., where they had shared ownership of the Carpinteria Herald. Paul was a newspaper man through and through, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Cal-Berkeley in 1954. He was very active in his community and was named Holbrook’s 1981 Man of the Year and 1999 Humanitarian of the Year, and in 2003 he was inducted into the Arizona Newspaper Hall of Fame. The Winslow Mail ceased publication in 2007, and the Snowflake Herald ceased publication in 2021, merging with The Holbrook Tribune, which then became The Tribune.
When Paul passed in 2013, his son Matthew took the helm and operated the publication until May of this year when it was sold to Shawn White, a life-long resident of Winslow and a graduate of the Cronkite School of Journalism. This year The Tribune celebrated 115 years of continuous operation for the citizens of Navajo County.
