The first issue of the Cedar Valley News will hit stands Thursday morning. It's been printed and features color photos and ads, sports previews from Riverside and Central Valley, including team photos, school information from Spalding Academy, Riverside and Central Valley, upcoming events, community news, celebrations and more.
The merger happened very quickly, but it felt right – right for the communities of Spalding, Cedar Rapids, Greeley, Wolbach, North Loup and Scotia. To introduce this merger, please read this viewpoint from former Greeley Citizen owner, Marty Callahan, who will continue writing for the newspaper.
With the sales of the Spalding Enterprise, Cedar Rapids Press and Greeley Citizen, many years of history in printing of area news comes to an end for these publications. But it opens a new era for local news to come from the new Cedar Valley News publication.
The good news is that all of the towns and areas served by these papers will continue to have a “local” weekly paper.
This change is not new and change has occurred in the weekly paper business for over a century of publications, dating back to when these communities formed back in the late 1880s.
In fact, in the pioneer days, it was very common to have multiple weekly papers running in each town. Those papers not only brought the local news to the residents, but was also one of the primary sources of the state, national and international news. The national and international news was actually imported and added to the local publication each week and sometimes twice weekly.
As radio and television became more prevalent, the national/international news began to leave the local weeklies.
In the case of the Spalding Enterprise and Cedar Rapids Press, the Bopp family has been involved in those publications for numerous years.
Owner Dave Bopp comes from a printing family, taking over ownership of the Enterprise from his father, Ron Bopp, with his passing in 1992. He started working with his dad in 1974.
Ron Bopp had succeeded his father, Don Bopp, at the Enterprise. Don Bopp had purchased the Enterprise from Gerrit Tyler in July of 1942 after he entered World War II.
Ron purchased the Cedar Rapids Press and began printing it in December of 1957 and the paper also went to Dave after Ron’s death in 1992.
Marty Callahan purchased the Greeley Citizen from Maurice Curran and his son, Jim Curran, in 1983. The Curran family had operated that paper for decades. Maurice took over from his father E.P. in the 1930s. E.P. had operated the Citizen since 1917. Callahan purchased the Scotia Register in 2000 from Wilber and Mary Medbery and consolidated it into the Greeley Citizen.
Now the torch has been passed to Pitzer Digital, LLC. They are a very accomplished media organization with years of experience.
This will be a new experience for all the readers of the three former papers as new publisher Carrie Pitzer brings new technologies, including print, social media and online, and opportunities for the expansion of news and information to the residents of Greeley County, along with the communities of Cedar Rapids and North Loup.
I very much appreciate being afforded the opportunity to continue writing for the new publication and also look forward to providing you with more articles in the future.
~ MARTY CALLAHAN, senior writer
