News Bulletin celebrates 35th anniversary

The Crestview News Bulletin marked its 35^th year of service to the communities of north Okaloosa County during the month of July.

The newspaper began publication under the “Okaloosa Consumer Bulletin” masthead, with the first edition hitting the streets of Crestview on July 3, 1975.

While the owners and even the name of the paper have changed throughout the years, the newspaper has stayed consistent in publication and service to the citizens of north Okaloosa County.

Roger Robinson was a young reporter with the hometown newspaper, the Okaloosa News Journal, when he decided to start his own paper. Robinson was unhappy with the corporate control handed down from the company’s home office, Scripps League, located in California.

“I was young and I was told that I couldn’t do it and I wanted to prove that I could,” said Robinson. “And there was something about owning your own paper and being able to say what you wanted to.”

News reporting had always been a part of Robinson’s life, having grown up in a household where his father, Allen Robinson, now deceased, reported for both newspaper and radio. In addition to two news broadcasts on the local radio station, WJSB, Allen Robinson was a stringer for a number of newspapers across northwest Florida and south Alabama as well as the Associated Press and United Press International.

“I learned to write by dictating his copy over the phone, which was my job when I was in middle school,” Robinson said.

Robinson founded the “Okaloosa Consumer Bulletin” as the people’s paper with something for everyone and included free classified advertisements and free distribution. His father, a veteran newspaperman, came to work for him, a fact that played a role in his early success.

Allen Robinson wrote a series of historical articles about the county and surrounding areas that were printed during the first year of publication.

“The history that my father wrote was very popular, people were lined up when we got back from the press in Florala,” Robinson said.

Another popular feature in the paper, according to Robinson was “Maws Meanderings”, a society column that included a lot of name-dropping written by Ellen Broderick.  Broderick was another seasoned columnist, whose family were former owners of the Okaloosa News Journal.

“We struggled against an established paper that was owned by millionaires in California. We were operating from month to month back then and a lot of times we didn’t get paid,’ remembered Robinson.

He started the paper with a partner named Jim Summerville, whose interest he soon bought out. He sold the newspaper in 1978 to Jack Becklund, who was at that time, owner of the Destin Log. Becklund would later sell to Jim Knudsen Sr., who Robinson remembers as the person who began to put the newspaper on good financial footing.

Knudsen’s family owned and operated the Bulletin for many years. His son, Jim Knudsen Jr. carried on the family’s newspaper tradition, serving as publisher until January 2007, when Freedom Communications purchased the Bulletin.

In addition to the Okaloosa Consumer Bulletin, the paper was published under the names of the North Okaloosa Bulletin, The Crestview News Leader and finally became known as the Crestview News Bulletin.

Roger Robinson had newspaper ink in his blood and he was not cured with the sale of the Bulletin. He went on to work as a reporter for the Pensacola News Journal, Bayou Times, Dothan Eagle and the Northwest Florida Daily News.

“It was a good experience and I’m glad I did it and I’m glad I got out of it when I did,” laughs Robinson.

Robinson met former Sen. W.D. Childers while covering the state legislature for the Pensacola News Journal and went to work for Childers as his legislative aid in 1993. He later became campaign manager and chief of staff for Sen. Durell Peaden, before retiring in August 2006. He recently went back to work for Peaden until his senate term expirers later this year.

“I was young and determined, it may not have been good business sense at the time, but the newspaper is still here and I take a lot of pleasure in the contribution to the economy. It’s nothing like it was when we started, but it’s always seemed like my baby,” Robinson said.

The Crestview News Bulletin is published twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays by Florida Freedom Newspapers, a subsidiary of Freedom Communications, Inc.

Freedom Communications, headquartered in Irvine California, is a nationally privately owned information and entertainment company of print publications, broadcast television stations and interactive businesses.

The Crestview News Bulletin is distributed by mail delivery and rack sales. The newspaper’s website at www.crestviewbulletin.com offers up to date breaking news from Crestview and north Okaloosa County, as well as regional and state news and has grown to more than 300,000 monthly page views. The website is interactive. Readers can post photos and videos and share news through the Bulletin’s Facebook page.

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