Twenty years ago, on July 1st, 1998, this community-minded News-Dog turned the faded knob of a storefront newspaper, then at 4603 St. John, and a new era in community journalism was born. Back then, the Northeast News was largely devoid of relevant news and was dedicated to advertorial copy, puff-pieces if you will, that had more to do with their bank of advertisers than it did community journalism.

That changed almost immediately with our first Editor Norman Mason and his faithful sidekick and Photo Editor, Brad Finch. The new Northeast News was off and running. Turning that faded knob didn’t happen overnight. That process began in January of 1998 when Ross Cascio, Principal at Victor Ross Real Estate, offered up the little nugget that the Northeast News, under the ownership of Terry Brock, was for sale. Nothing perked up the news-dog’s ears like an opportunity to provide good, relevant community news to a community with so much going on. After all, the Dog had started a community newspaper for the then-fledgling Northeast Chamber, called The Citizen, because there was no community voice, only something people used for bird cage liner and puppy training. Thankfully, Bill Dana and the late Ed Huwaldt at Central Bank of Kansas City saw value in our business proposal, loaning the necessary capital to re-launch an aging brand and offer news – real news – to a community on the upswing.

That was then, this is now, and we here at The House of News are still providing award-winning community news to the neighborhood in which we continue to live and do business. Once again our team, the Dog included, was honored to receive awards for excellence in Journalism from the Missouri Press Association. We can’t go into detail right now but suffice it to say we’re tickled pink to continue to be recognized by our peers for what we love to do – bring our readers community news you can use on a variety of media platforms. Throughout the month of July we’ll bring you some snippets of Northeast News history, interviews with some of our long-time advertisers and the folks that made this little roller coaster ride we call the news business, our vocation and our passion for these past 20 years.