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P RO G RESS E DIT IO N Kirksville Daily Express -- 2016
www.KirksvilleDailyExpress.com
Vol. 115, No. 177
$1.50
What’s happening in our community that will build a better tomorrow?
OBITUARIES Lee Brouhard, 77 Kirksville Robert May, 85 Kirksville
Editorial
page 5
INSIDE PROGRESS
Hartzell Hardwoods continues growth page 2B
Downtown streets get major upgrade page 1C
Daily Express creates regional design center, adds five employees Expansion of Kraft Heinz ‘a miracle’ page 1B
Gutensohn Clinic gets facelift page 4C
Health Council stays true to its mission page 4B Your News...........2 Comics ...............6 Local/State ........3 Sports ...............10 Opinion ...............4 Classifieds ........12
The last year has been an exciting one for the Kirksville Daily Express, with the latest changes involving the addition of a local design center that is currently handling advertising composition and page design for seven different publications. In addition to the Kirksville Daily Express and Kirksville Crier, the design staff in Kirksville is now handling production of the Linn County Leader and Show-Me Shopper, Moberly Monitor-Index and the Moberly Shopper, and NEMO Trader. Functions such as reporting, sales and circulation are handled at the respective publications in Linn County and Moberly. Stories and photos, along with information to design advertisements, are sent to Kirksville where the local design team builds those publications and sends them to the printing press in Hannibal. Senior Group Publisher Mike Murphy said the quality of the Daily Express and its employees made it a “natural, logical choice” to consolidate those functions in Kirksville. “People who know how to make a newspaper, that’s a unique skill to find,” Murphy said. “We found an existing core of competency here.” The Daily Express has added four full-time positions to handle the additional work. One of those positions is currently open and applications are being accepted. Additionally, next week the Daily Express will add a regional accounting manager in its office. This person will oversee accounting functions at the GateHouse Media publications in northeast Missouri. That’s a total of five new full-time jobs at the Daily Express. Murphy said the reality for newspapers is far different – and far better – than some of the existing perceptions. “There is a renaissance going on in community newspapers around the country. We’re seeing stable print circulation and online readership is growing by double digits,” he said. “Investors are coming back. The products are valued. There is no reason to think we’ll not be doing what we do for quite a while into the future.”
Above: The Kirksville Daily Express building in downtown Kirksville. Below: Employees in the local design center build advertisements and pages.
Our resume Missouri Press Association - 49 awards since 2007, including first place honors in news writing, education writing, news series, column writing, feature series, sports feature writing, breaking news coverage, investigative reporting, special sections and photo illustrations Heart of America Awards Sponsored by the Kansas City Press Club chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. - 10 awards since 2012, including gold honors for column writing, business reporting, public service journalism and general reporting Best of GateHouse Sponsored by the Daily Express’ parent company. - 13 awards since 2011, including feature writer of the year, sports writer of the year, columnist of the year and newspaper of the year
One poll tells us people are optimistic about the future. The next tells us the exact opposite. We feel good about the economy. Then we’re in a panic. Unemployment goes down, but then we question the number of people in the workforce. On and on it goes. Locally, things just feel “off” when it comes to our overall confidence in the community and its future. People seem to fluctuate between enjoying living here, and wondering why anyone who isn’t from here would ever bother to make the trip, let alone try to stay. We demand progress, new jobs, economic advancement, but then some express anger and outrage at the kinds of economic opportunities that come to our community, and the methods used to bring them here. Overall, there is a sense that people feel Kirksville and northeast Missouri is stuck in neutral. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. The pages inside our 2016 Progress Edition, “Steps to Success,” illustrate the progress being made in so many areas, including infrastructure, economic development, health care and education - the core areas that a prosperous future must be built upon. In this edition you’ll see how A.T. Still University, Truman State University and the Kirksville R-III School District are improving their facilities to better serve students, faculty and members of the community. You’ll see how businesses like Kraft Heinz and Hartzell Hardwoods are continuing to grow their local operations. You’ll see how the Northeast Missouri Health Council, Preferred Family Healthcare and Northeast Regional Medical Center are taking steps to address our health care needs now and into the future. You’ll see how the city of Kirksville has undertaken massive efforts to improve local streets and other key infrastructure, while working toward the development of a new entryway to draw visitors into the city. And you’ll also see the many questions we are facing along the way. We can tell you what we’re doing now, we can tell you the plan for the future, but some of the choices on the specific paths to those points are up to all of us, as a community, to decide. This is an exciting time for Kirksville. It’s a period of improvement, a period of growth, and one that, if we can come together, will build a better future for generations to come. Thank you for reading, and please enjoy our 2016 Progress Edition.