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About Us: Rawlins Times

 

 

The Rawlins Daily Times

The Rawlins Daily Times is part of the Wyoming Newspaper Newsgroup. This group is not a true newspaper chain. Rather, it is an affiliate of newspapers with joint ownerships and interests.

Other newspapers in the group include the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle out of Cheyenne, the Laramie Boomerang, the Rock Springs Rocket-Miner, and the Northern Wyoming Daily News in Worland.

 

History

The history of newspapers in Carbon County is a long one, dating back to 1860s, with publications such as the Fort Steele Herald and the Frontier Index.

The Daily Times got its start in December 1889 as the Rawlins Republican, a newspaper started under the guidance of publisher H. B. Fetz.

The Rawlins Republican was published weekly until 1936, when the name was changed to the Rawlins Republican-Bulletin and was made a five-days-a-week daily newspaper.

In 1946, Ross Alcorn — who spent 35 years working at the newspaper mostly as editor — sold the newspaper to Tracy McCraken, Ted O’Melia, Stanley Greenbaum, Dave Richardson, O.B. Koerfer and others. In his “Au Revoir” editorial saying goodbye, Alcorn called the new ownership “among the best known and most capable newsmen in Wyoming.”

At the same time, the ownership bought the Carbon County News, and combined the newspapers.

O’Melia, who was born and raised in Rawlins and had his first newspaper job in Rawlins, was named publisher, and the newspaper’s name changed to the Daily Times. The name change, according to a front-page editorial, “The Daily Times Makes Its Bow,” in the first issue of the Daily Times on April 16, 1946, reflected “the political independence which will henceforth be the policy of the publication.”

In 1952, the Daily Times moved from the First National Bank building, which is now the Bank of the West building, to its current location at 522 W. Buffalo.

During its time frame, the newspaper has a history of respected leadership and newsmen, such as Alcorn, O’Melia, Ralph Geddes, Neil Clark and Dave Perry.

 

Today

The Daily Times employees 15-18 full time employees, as well as multiple part-time employees and contract carriers.

As technology has changed, so has the Daily Times.

In March 2009, the Daily Times moved into the digital age with the launch of rawlinstimes.com, followed by explorecarboncounty.com in 2010.

In 2009, the Daily Times published its first magazine, Explore Carbon County, which has turned into a partnership with Carbon County Visitors Council.

The group publisher is Jeff Robertson and the general manager is Missey Turney. The editor is Chad Abshire.

The goal of the Daily Times today is the same as first day as in 1946 when it’s name was changed: to “be one of the most creditable small city daily newspapers to be found anywhere.”