Small-town publishers
return to stave off demise of oldest weekly paper in Nebraska
PAWNEE CITY, Nebraska — The front page story in a recent edition of the Pawnee Republican solved a local mystery — what happened to the grass-fire rig stolen from the Burchard Fire Department? But the bigger mystery in this southeast Nebraska farm town of 855 people is who’s going to take over the newspaper, the longest continuously published weekly publication in the state? Longtime owners Bev and Ron Puhalla thought they had ensured the future of the Republican in 2019 when they sold it. They jumped into a mobile home and traveled the United State to catch up on the sights they had missed during the weekly chores of putting out a community newspaper.
