Advocate owners celebrate 10 yrs. in Laurel
The owners of Laurel’s oldest business, the Laurel Advocate, will celebrate 10 years of publishing the local newspaper next week.
Rob Dump and Peggy Year, Hartington, publishers of the Cedar County News since 1992, formed the Northeast Nebraska News Company Oct. 1, 1996, and became publishers of the Advocate at that time. Along with the purchase of the Advocate from Duane and Mary Jane Weber, Osmond, the couple acquired the Randolph Times and Osmond Republican, also owned by the Webers.
Since then, the Northeast Nebraska News Company has grown to include the Wausa Gazette and Coleridge Blade.
The administrative offices of the Northeast Nebraska News Company are located in Hartington and the production facility is located in Osmond. All of the newspapers maintain offices in the communities they serve.
“When we purchased the Cedar County News, we made a commitment to community journalism in Cedar County. When we purchased the Advocate, we made that same commitment to Laurel,” said Dump. “Newspapers are the historians and the cheerleaders of the community and we take this job very seriously.”
A community newspaper plays a vital role in the development and stability of rural communities, he said.
“We believe in the future of rural communities and the quality of life they represent. We hope in some way that by publishing quality newspapers in these towns, we will help strengthen those communities.”
Dump is also the first Advocate publisher to ever serve on the Nebraska Press Associaton Board of Directors. He currently serves as the President of the Nebraska Press Association Advertising Service. In that capacity, he has an opportunity to travel quite a bit this year and see quite a few communities around the state and around the country.
“I’ve learned a great deal about the newspaper industry and about small communities in my time on that Board,” he said. “It’s also helped me to realize that our communities have quite a bit going for them.  That’s something to be proud of.”
The Advocate is the only business still in existence today that was open when Laurel was founded in 1893. When the city of Laurel celebrated its centennial, so did the newspaper.
It’s interesting to note, the first owner of the Advocate, S.J. Young, was also from Hartington. He owned the Hartington Herald and established the Advocate in Laurel, hiring John Frank Mills to be the manager. In 1894, Mills purchased the newspaper for $150. After Mills left, C.E. Nevin was the publisher from 1900-1929 when R.R. Allison took over ownership.
It was Allison, who, in 1941, moved the Advocate into a new building at 106 E. Second Street—the current location. Prior to that, the paper had moved at least a half dozen times. Places included the present locations of Lackas Service Center, Northeast Nebraska Insurance Agency, above Schumacher-Hasemann Funeral Home and a building east of the Post Office. Others were just a room or two in another place of business.
In 1946, Allison sold the business to Roger Hill. The paper changed hands several times in the next 10 years.
In 1955, Duane and Alice Kunzman became the owners. It is also when Roger Tryon, currently a columnist for the Advocate, first worked for the paper. The Kunzmans were editors and publishers until 1970, when the paper was sold to Keith Clark-son, another man who had previous newspaper experience in Hartington. While the Kunzmans were the owners, they updated the equipment and had the present newspaper nameplate designed.
When the newspaper was first published, it was all hand set. Later the type was set on a linotype, with the exception of the larger type, which was still hand set. When the business moved to its present location in 1941 new presses were installed. At that time all of the production of the newspaper was completed on site.
In the 1970s, printing of the newspaper moved off site to Wayne. When the Webers purchased the paper, the printing was moved to Osmond. It is still printed on the same two-unit Goss press today. 
The newspaper office has traditionally been the place where community visitors would come for information about the town and people. It is the place people bring their news, place their ads, and purchase office supplies. Although the manner used to gather the news has changed to fax machines and email, it is still the clearinghouse for the information about the community.
Although technology has changed the way the news is gathered and printed, putting out a newspaper still requires the same steps — gathering the news, selling ads, constructing the pages, printing the paper, and getting it out to the readers. When one issue of the paper is finally put to bed, it’s time to start over for the next week.
Over the years, many people have been associated with the Advocate. The longest person to be employed by the newspaper was Sally Harrington, who was with the Advocate for 35 years.
The newspaper industry has changed a great deal since Harrington’s first days on the Advocate staff.
Today, e-mail and the internet are used a great deal to both gather and distribute the news.
Many newspapers, including the Advocate, also have web pages to share their information with readers. The Advocate web page, designed by Laurel native Shasta Wittmus, can be found at northeastnebraskanews.com
The current owners have operated the Cedar County News since 1992. They are both originally from the Sioux Falls area.
Dump has been in the newspaper business since 1978, and has worked at daily, twice weekly and weekly publications. While a journalism student at South Dakota State University, he established the Midwest Dirt Tracker, a weekly auto racing newspaper. He has held various journalistic positions including reporter and photographer for sports, regional editor, and managing editor of the Brookings Daily Register.
Prior to the purchase of the Cedar County News, Year served as executive director of the Oscar Howe Art Center, Mitchell, S.D., was a part-time instructor at Dakota Wesleyan University and South Dakota State University and worked as an air photo interpreter.
The couple has three children Kyle, 17; Kaylee, 15; and Kellyn, 12; and live in Hartington