In 1970, under Wilson and Andrist, The Chronicle
still concentrated heavily on Omak. After a brief recession in the early 1970s, Omak and
Okanogan County began to prosper.
Still, newspapers in Okanogan and Tonasket closed.
The Chronicle expanded news coverage to include both
communities and circulation rose from 2,600 in 1970 to 6,600 by 1982. What had been a
newspaper of 10-12 pages a week in 1970 grew to 24-32 pages in 1981-82.
The growth created new problems in the 1929 building which
housed the newspaper, print shop and office supply store.
Early in 1979, the office supply stock was sold to Ken and
Glenda Freel of The Office Center and the building underwent its first major overhaul in
50 years.
That began with a 40-foot addition on the rear of the
building and was followed by extensive remodeling throughout the old section.
The print shop, headed by Earl Gray since 1974, moved into
the new space and everyone gained a little elbow room.
News coverage took on a truly county-wide scope as the staff
covered issues from Oroville to Pateros and the Methow to Grand Coulee Dam.
The Chronicle faced a new economic challenge in the early
1980s. Omak began losing grocery stores to the recession and surviving grocers began
shifting their advertising from newspapers to direct mail.
Surviving that loss meant digging harder for enough small
ads to make up for the full pages grocers once purchased. That meant adding more
advertising sales people.
It also meant trying new publications. A television
guide, the TV Chronicle, and shopper, The Bottom Line, were produced each week.
New publications and new staff meant work space was short
again. The print shop was moved to rental space in a former freight warehouse in south
Omak and the building was remodeled again.
The remodeling in 1979 meant growth, but in 1983 it was an
effort to maintain position. Even so, staff reductions were necessary.
As it entered its 75th year of publication, The Chronicle
repeated the belt-tightening which meant its survival in similar recessions in the past.
When Koch was named managing editor in 1985 Dee Camp, who
joined the staff in 1979 as society editor/reporter and photographer, was named news
editor. Her husband, Al, was moved from sports writer to sports editor.
Okanogan County’s tight economy eased slightly
toward the late 1980s with construction of Omache Shopping Center in north Omak, and The
Chronicle staff again found itself with little elbow room.
In 1989 Andrist and Koch sold the Main Street building to
the Kendall family, owners of nearby Bramer Hardware and, during the week between
Christmas 1989 and New Year’s 1990, moved The Chronicle to its present location on
Okoma Drive.
The staff and office cat, Inky, made the move without
missing an issue.
The new location - the same building that had housed the
print shop and later the short-lived, low-power TV station, OKTV, was remodeled by Dale
Erickson from a freight warehouse to an office building.
Gray bought out the print shop and created Earl
Gray Printing, relocating it to South Main Street.
Meanwhile, the printing industry was undergoing another
technology revolution as desktop computers - notably the Macintosh - became widely
available. After brief use of a now-defunct operating system to bridge the gap between
phototypesetting, or “cold type,” process and computers, The Chronicle settled
on a Macintosh system.
The first Macs were purchased in the late 1980s, shortly
before the move to Okoma Drive.
Reporters wrote their stories on computer and, more notably,
began designing pages on the screen. Similarly, the production department also began
designing ads on screen.
The pieces - news designs and ads - were “tiled”
or printed on a laser printer, waxed and pasted onto full-page “flats.”
Photographs, printed in the darkroom as halftones (pictures with dots) were pasted in
place.
Koch’s title changed from managing editor to
co-publisher in September 1990, during a staff reorganization in which she began
supervising the advertising department and Dee Camp became news editor again after a
17-month stint as copy editor.
Camp was special sections editor from 1991-1995,
while Cheryl Probst filled the news desk. Probst left in September 1995 to work in China
and Camp reassumed news editor duties.
The Chronicle suffered a major upheaval when Andrist
suffered a brain stem stroke in December 1993. Koch bowed out of day-to-day management to
be with him, first in rehabilitation in Seattle, and later as primary caregiver when he
returned home to Omak in June 1994.
During the two and a half years after Andrist’s stroke
until the paper was sold to Eagle Newspapers in July 1996, staff members kept up
operations with Koch and Andrist in supervisory roles from their home. |
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Chronicle photo by Al Camp |
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| The Chronicle’s 2000 staff includes (front, from left) news editor Al Camp, ad
representative Rachel Rawley, production manager Katie Montanez, editor Dee Camp, news
writer and columnist Elizabeth Widel, distribution manager Kris Vigoren, receptionist Erin
Gahringer, production worker Phil Bedard, (back) classified ad representative Sharon
Riley, ad representative Mary Taggart, ad representative Stacy Storm,
reporter-photographer Susie Buchert, production worker Kristi Stone, proofreader Marilyn
Conant, publisher Judy Z. Smith, reporter-photographer Bill Stevenson, operations manager
Ray Little and bookkeeper Teri Chase. Missing are production worker Amy Cheeseman, credit
manager Ron Smith and news intern Zac Van Brunt. |
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Chronicle photo by Al Camp |
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The folks who assemble The Chronicle and Bottom Line
Shopper’s multiple sections and advertising inserts are (front, from left) Angie
Stokes, Pam Stokes, Elizabeth Donnor, William Donnor, Bob Watkins, (back) Bob Schoof,
Delphia Clark, Stacy Allen, Kris Vigoren, Jon Soyster, Frank Clark. Missing is Mariah
Allen. |
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Chronicle file photo |
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| Marilyn Ries (at left) works at a Macintosh while a construction worker puts finishing
touches on a partial wall shortly after the 1990 move to Okoma Drive |
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Chronicle photo by Dee Camp |
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Katie Montanez works on an ad layout in current production area |
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Chronicle file photo
Chronicle crew and families gather in 1961 for a Christmas edition photo. They are (front,
from left) Bill Rowe holding son Keith with Stephen, Susan and Terry; Bruce Wilson with
sons Scott and Terry; Earl Tinker; Al Reines with daughter Lynn; John E. Andrist with
children Jean, John and Katie; (back) Joe Sinclair with daughter Barb; Clair Ann Rowe and
Billy Rowe; Elizabeth Widel; Duff Wilson, and Merilynn Wilson and daughter Chris; Ruth
Sinclair with son Rick; Keith Reines, and Karen and Coleen Reines; Donna Andrist holding
Kerrie, and Harley Heath. |
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