Sierra Vista Herald AZ

Ky Richards Jr. and his wife, Lois, started printing the Huachuca Herald on Fridays starting Oct. 7, 1955. They put out the first editions on a typewriter, composing stories on their kitchen table. They had come from Hawaii and Lois wore a muumuu while selling ads. She also was pregnant. The couple decided to start printing the paper twice a week and did so starting Oct. 8, 1967. At that time, the newspaper hit the streets on Sundays and Wednesdays. On May 22, 1968, the couple sold the newspaper to Sig H. Atkinson of Chandler and Milton Wick, founder of Wick Communications. On Aug. 21, 1968, there was a new printing process installed called offset printing. It is still used across the world today. The Herald started publishing via offset with 3,000 subscribers in 1968. By 1969, the community was big enough that the Herald could merge with the Douglas Daily Dispatch, forming the Sierra Vista Herald-Dispatch, a name many people who have lived here long enough still call us to this day. Meanwhile, over in Bisbee, Bill Epler bought the Bisbee newspaper from Phelps Dodge in 1971 and changed it from a daily newspaper to a weekly. He sold the newspaper to the Wick family in 1974 and it was changed back to a daily on Oct. 4, 1976, when Walt Wick and Milton Wick were publishers of the Herald. At that time, they combined the Herald with the Bisbee Daily Review. In 1976, the newspaper added The Associated Press wire service news, and then it began publishing five days a week: another sign of a community on the rise. It was nearly five years later on Sunday, June 14, 1981, that a Sunday edition was added.