Claresholm Local Press

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The history of newspapers in Claresholm began in 1904. With the growth of the town, the Claresholm Review was established, with McDonald and Huxable as proprietors and Woodburn McDonald as the editor. The Claresholm Advertiser started publication with its first edition being published on Wednesday, April 15, 1914. By the spring of 1919, both papers had amalgamated to form the Review-Advertiser which ran until the spring of 1928. However, 18 months prior to that, the first issue of the Claresholm Local Press was printed, in Oct. 1926 with R.L. King as editor and publisher. At the time, the Press was located on 49th Ave. W. In 1928, King bought a lot on Second Street, which is still the present location for the paper. In that year, a cottage roof building, 24 feet by 24 feet was constructed and became the home of the Claresholm Local Press. King continued as editor until Dec. 21, 1944, when he sold the business to Gordon Neale. In1946, Neale bought the mailing list of the Stavely Advertiser, some 350 names. Both papers were printed in Claresholm in those days. By 1948, additional space was needed for more equipment, so an extra 24 feet was added to the back of the Local Press building. In 1954, a 10-foot by 48-foot addition was built to the north side of the building for paper stock and to make room for an automatic folder for the paper. A 14 by18-foot office was later built on the south side of the original building. Eldon, "Andy", G. Anderson bought the paper from Gordon Neale and took possession on Feb. 1, 1965 and was publisher and editor until May, 1978. At the time of the purchase, the paper was still being printed by letterpress, meaning all the type had to be set by hand, linotyped or engraved in lead before it went to the presses. All setting of type and press runs were done in Claresholm except for press ion colour printing. Both the Claresholm Local Press and the Stavely Advertiser were printed this way in Claresholm.After the last issue of the Stavely Advertiser was printed, the Stavely news was included in the Claresholm paper. The last paper to be printed in the original building was on July 27, 1972, at which time the present building was built in two stages. The back half was built first. The printing equipment was moved into the new half and while the front half was being constructed, the office was run from the Dr. Morley Hodgson building across the street. The official opening of Cedar Terrace, the current building which now houses the Claresholm Local Press, was held on March 24, 1973. June 5, 1975, marked a change of history for Claresholm's newspaper. The electronic age took over from the mechanical working equipment. A computer called Linocomp, with a regular typewriter keyboard of 36- plus keys, was installed replacing the mechanical linotype keyboard of 90 keys. The Linocomp was a photo-electric computer; the second of its kind in Alberta that set type on photographic paper. The pages were paper paste-ups; negatives developed in a newly built dark room and sent out to be printed on an offset press. New computers were purchased every two years to keep up with the changes in printing. On April 1, 1978, Paul W.

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