The Valley City Times-Record - bringing the news to and of the valley for more than 128 years

Spring of 1879 - Dr. H.W. Coe publishes the first Northern Pacific Times from a tarpaper shanty on May 12.

1880 - Newspaper sold to C.M. Greene and Renamed the Valley City Times, a weekly newspaper.

1881 - W.T Craswell purchased the newspaper, only to be succeeded shortly after by Alexander McConnell. He in turn, sold it to the Times Publishing Company which was reported to be controlled by C.F. Kindred. By this time, the Times had become a daily newspaper containing telegraphic reports as well as local news.

1885 - Newspaper reverted to a weekly, a new printing press and two job presses installed, run by a steam engine, and a good assortment of new and job type.

1887 - The Times-Record was formed when the Barnes County Record bought the good will and the subscription list of the Valley City Times, merging the two operations.

1892 - Newspaper sold out W.F. Dunlap

1899 - Business sold to S.A. Nye, who ran it as a weekly

1905 - The daily Times-Record was re-established

1907 - Weekly and the daily sold to the Times-Record Printing. A new printing plant built east of the Kindred Hotel. The main floor of the building and basement were designed to hold the newspaper offices and plant and the second floor was leased to the Masonic Lodge. The newspaper occupied the building on April 12, 1908

1919 - Percy R. Trubshaw, a famous North Dakota newspaperman, acquired the Valley City Times-Record

1926 - Times-Record sold to the Lum family in Wahpeton, a noted newspaper family. The lure of newspapering, however was too strong and Trubshaw purchased the newspaper back after a 14-month layoff.
Trubshaw's long service in the state's newspaper field earned him many honors, including a niche in the North Dakota Hall of Fame

1944 - Don Matchan, who had been publishing the Barnes County Press, acquired an interest in the Times-Record and merged the two newspapers

1947 - Newspaper was sold to the Valley City Times-Record Incorporated. Incorporators were Jim Wick, a New York publisher; Milton Wick, Niles, Ohio; Owen O. Scott, Youngstown, Ohio; and Jerry Bjerke, Valley City. Bjerke became publisher and resident manager

1952 - Owen Scott acquired the stock of the other three owners and named Seth Carlson as publisher. Scott made several moves to improve the efficiency of the newspaper, installing two automatic teletype setters, a perforator punching tape, used by the automatics, and Elrod linecaster, a Ludlow typesetter, and several automatic job presses

1962 - Edward C. Cochrane of Neenah, Wis., became the new owner and changed the corporate name to Valley City and Barnes County Times-Record.

1964 - Times-Record purchased by the Mid-America Publishing Company of Des Moines and Shenandoah, Iowa. C.Vanderstreek selected as publisher. He had been office manager and manager of the commercial printing department under the past three publishers

1968 - The newspaper converted to offset publishing, the third such changeover in state newspapers, joining a nationwide trend to the web offset process of printing. This necessitated complete replacement of the letterpress machinery. A Gross community press was installed and completely new electronic typesetting equipment replaced the now obsolete linotypes

1974 - The whole appearance of the Valley City Times-Record building was changed with a facelift. The former store-like exterior was replaced with a Colonial-look new front of siding and residence-sized windows with an overhead canopy. During the next year, a newspaper storage warehouse was added to the rear fo the establishment

1978 - Ridhard Plum, who had been associated with Mid-America Publishing Corporation in their plant at Spirit Lake, Iowa, was transferred to Valley City to take over the dual role of editor and assistant publisher. The newspaper, by this time had moved into the electronic processing of news, using the electronic tube method. Under his direction, improvements in the equipment for setting type were added and the newspaper was redesigned in a modern manner

1980 - Plum named general manager and associate publisher of the newspaper with C. Vandestreek remaining as publisher and Dave Dawson, Spensor, Iowa, arrived as editor

1984 - Vandestreek retired, after serving as publisher for 20 years. He was employed by the Times-Record for about 40 years. Plum was promoted to publisher in 1984 and stayed for five years in that position before returning to his home state of Iowa

1989 - Mark Conlon, who was editor under Plum, named publisher and Bob Kjelland named editor. Dennis Vernon named publisher

1999 - The Valley City Times-Record purchased by Horizons Publications of Marion, IL.

2000 - Peder Colbenson, circulation manager at the Jamestown Sun, became the publisher at the Times-Record in April. Julie Nelson became editor at this time

2002- Clif Wasfaret named editor

2004 - Bruce Jones, of Oklahoma, named publisher in May of 2004. Sandy Hansen is the editor

2005 - Angie Love, of Michigan, named publisher of the Valley City Times-Record

2007 - June 2007- Nikki Laine Zinke of Fingal (originally of Mandan) named managing editor. December 2007-Roger Bluhm hired as publisher.

2009 - February - Chuck Williams of Horizon Publications Inc., the Valley City Times-Record's parent company, temporarily assumes publisher position until a new publisher is named.
March 2009 - Nikki Laine Zinke is promoted to publisher. May 2009 - Lee Morris is named news editor.