Kenosha News - Since 1960

Since 1960

In 1961, controlling interest in the Kenosha News passed to Howard J. Brown, a newspaperman with experience in Chicago, Cleveland and at several small dailies in the east. Brown said of the newspaper business, “It is not a business at all. Nor is it a way of life or even a philosophy. Newspapering, in short, is a delightful disease, the only cure for which is heavier doses of the same.”

On Monday, April 30, 1962, the 67-year-old Kenosha Evening News nameplate disappeared forever, replaced on the masthead by the Kenosha News. The dropping of the word “Evening” was done quietly and without fanfare.

In the 1970s, the Kenosha News offices at Seventh Avenue and 58th Street underwent its third major remodeling, which included the replacement of its old letterpress with the first Goss Cosmo offset press ever built, and, perhaps the most revolutionary, computerized typesetting. Electronic journalism had driven “hot metal” from the newsroom’s back shop. They also introduced the popular Kenosha Kid article.

Editor Lee Hancock retired at the beginning of 1976, replaced by Richard D. Martin, who came to Kenosha after serving 10 years as editor of the Chronicle-Tribune in Marion, Indiana. Martin was only the eighth editor in the newspaper’s 100-year history.

The paper was published just six days a week, Monday through Saturday. In May 1980, the slim Saturday edition was dropped, replaced by the multi-section Sunday Kenosha News. The loss of the Saturday paper was not popular, however, and seven years later, on May 9, 1987, the News returned to Saturday publication, becoming a true 7-day-a-week daily.

The daily newspaper, in time, became one element in a larger corporate structure called United Communications Corporation. In December 1988, Eugene Schulte, Willis’ son and long a part of the News’ management team, became senior vice president of the corporation.

On August 12, 1991, the Kenosha News became a morning newspaper. The move from afternoon to morning was explained as a response to changing advertising needs and reader lifestyles.

In 1992, Kenneth L. Dowdell, director of public service, and Ronald J. Montemurro, controller of United Communications Corporation, were named corporate vice presidents. Fred E. Ricker became Kenosha News controller in 1993.

On December 31, 1995, editor Richard D. Martin retired at age 62. During Martin’s tenure, the News won several awards for its news and photo coverage. In 1989, the Kenosha News was one of 74 finalists among 465 newspapers in an American Society of Newspaper Editors’ survey seeking excellence in small daily newspapers.

Martin was replaced in mid-January 1996 by Craig W. Swanson, who was previously editor of the Lincoln Journal, an afternoon newspaper that merged with the morning Lincoln Star. Prior to working at the Journal, Swanson spent four years as editor of the Herald-Palladium in St. Joseph, Michigan, and five years as editor of The Mining Journal in Marquette, Michigan. He began his newspaper career as a reporter at the Daily News in Iron Mountain, Michigan, in 1975. Swanson retired in 2009, citing personal reasons.

Jon Losness assumed editorship in 2009. Howard Brown died in 2011.

Today, United Communications Corporation has holdings from Minnesota to New England, including several television stations, smaller newspapers and shoppers, as well as the 48,000-circulation Bulletin, which shares space in the Kenosha News building.