HPNews celebrates first anniversary with coffee
By Staff, 10/3/19 1:00 PMPRESCOTT – HopePrescott News celebrated its first anniversary of operations Thursday with a community coffee at the Nevada County Depot and Museum.
The place was packed with well-wishers congratulating the paper on its first year.
Judy Duke, museum curator, said she was sick when she learned the Nevada County Picayune was closing and felt the community needed a newspaper. On Oct. 4, 2018, she said, the first edition of the HopePrescott News rolled off the presses, giving Hempstead and Nevada counties a newspaper.
Mark Keith, one of the owners, thanked everyone for their support, saying people want to read about what’s going on in their community, not just in Little Rock and elsewhere. He said three months into publication, they got a call concerning an event in Cale, got it covered and ran it on the front page.
He continued, saying he and co-owner Wendell Hoover, had no idea what they were doing when they started the paper and began by having 1,000 copies of the eight-page publication printed. Since, the paper now has 2,500 copies printed and runs an average of 12-pages a week, with around 400 being mailed out.
However, the star of the coffee may well have been “Old Mike”. The dummy made up for the play of “Old Mike” is housed in the museum. Duke showed it to several of the patrons who didn’t believe it.
