Left, huge rolls of paper sit in the warehouse of a Waupaca printing facility. (City-Times photo)

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. -Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States.

City-Times Staff

Autumn, 2011: a group of listless Pacelli and SPASH graduates sit around a dinner of Hamburger Helper and beer, discussing for the hundredth time how great it would be to stop being a flunky for someone else’s company, to stop dreaming of starting a newspaper and take the sage advice of Michael Jordan and “Just Do It”.

It would be a newspaper which filled the gaps in ultra-local news, with core reporting centered on local government and the local economy, with community feature journalism as a strong secondary focus. One that did not sensationalize news, one without a corporate noose and one with high ethical standards which instilled a sense of pride in the profession of news journalism as well as educating the electorate on tectonic shifts in our community.

It was a simple goal. But we were the underdog- and therein lies the rub.

The mountain we had to climb was higher than any other personal struggle we’d individually endured. Not only did we face the struggles of starting a new business, but we had to contend with the very real- and stubborn- mindset of readers’ perception of the responsibilities of a news organization. We also had to pester- and in some cases beg- practically every organization, municipal office and elected official to recognize us as a legitimate news entity.

There was so much we didn’t know. We had no real knowledge of the process behind local legislation or the accepted procedure behind news publishing. All we had was drive and a dream.

At first, everyone at city hall thought we were a joke. In an exit interview with the City-Times, outgoing Fire Chief Tracey Kujawa said at first, department heads would speak of us with little regard. We were just a little blog, they thought, which would soon fizzle away into obscurity.

Many businesses thought the same, and refused to include us in the business updates they released to the media, and did not consider spending their advertising dollars on us. One owner of a local car lot said we’d never go anywhere because we weren’t in print, and therefore had no stability or credibility.

Against the odds and against local attitudes favoring print, we changed all of their minds.

We’re not obnoxious enough to suggest our own persistence will solve the problems of the human race, as President Coolidge suggests in his well-known thoughts mentioned above. But today, our staff has the most respected and responsive news reporters in our community. We work 24 hours a day. We’re often the first to know and first to report, and we operate from the single truth than nothing is more important than a well-informed electorate.

Readers have been flocking to our website in droves and our growth has been nothing short of unexpected. Now, due to high reader demand, we’re adding a new free weekly print issue to our news arsenal, and boy do we need help.

We need sales associates, news reporters, newsboys/girls, bloggers, a food editor, community writers and website geeks. Send us your resumes with contact information to: [email protected].

So if you’re a community- minded individual, drop us a line. We hope you’ve enjoyed the City-Times journey thus far, and we hope you can contribute to bringing the very best in local news to your friends and neighbors.

Whoever said “print is dead” never sat in the local coffee shops, diners and parks of Stevens Point, Plover and Hull. It’s a community resource we believe will never completely die out, and so long as there are readers of print news, you can count on the City-Times to bring you the very best of it.