CRESTVIEW — Since before the city’s — and county’s — founding, North Okaloosa County residents have relied on newspapers for information about local people and issues.
See images of old Okaloosa County newspapers, ads and stories>>
William H. Mapoles, “the father of Okaloosa County,” might also be called “the father of Okaloosa County newspapers.” When he and his wife, Celeste, moved to Laurel Hill in 1910, Mapoles established The Laurel Hill News. He was a newspaperman by trade, having worked for his father, the Rev. John Thomas Mapoles, The Milton Gazette’s founder, according to Baker Block Museum Director Ann Spann.
Upon Okaloosa's September 1915 formation, the Rev. Mapoles moved to Milligan and established The County Journal. After successfully shepherding the county’s creation through the state Legislature, William Mapoles moved his family and newspaper to Crestview, recognizing the city’s growth potential. He renamed his weekly The Okaloosa News, publishing the first edition on Nov. 8, 1915.
In March 1918, he merged with his dad’s paper and changed the name to the Okaloosa News-Journal. It was the county’s longest-running paper, publishing until Dec. 14, 1992.
THE MESSENGER
In 1922, an annual subscription to The Okaloosa News-Journal cost $1, Claudia Patten and Betty Curenton wrote in “Crestview: The Forkland.” Three years later, editor W.D. Douglas added the county’s first crossword puzzle.
In September 1926, Mapoles sold the paper to Douglas “with an agreement not to compete,” Spann said. But by September 1929, Mapoles was back in the newspaper business; as a wink at the agreement, his wife Celeste was the new Okaloosa Messenger's editor. The two weeklies competed well into the 1940s.
1952 through 1954, the News-Journal became the West Florida Daily Globe, adding “combined with Okaloosa News-Journal” in small print on the masthead. Still published in Crestview, the paper included national, world, local and regional reporting.
ENTER THE BULLETIN
On July 3, 1975, the Crestview News Bulletin’s ancestor, the Okaloosa Consumer Bulletin, a free, tabloid-size weekly, began publishing under editor Roger Robinson, a former reporter for The Playground News. (The Playground News, later the Playground Daily News, is today's Northwest Florida Daily News.) Robinson’s father, Allen, helped his son by writing a series of county history columns he planned to turn into a book, Spann said.
In 1985, the Okaloosa News Journal dropped its hyphen, “The Forkland” states. It added a weekend edition with color funnies in May 1991, which lasted less than a year.
Upon the end of The Okaloosa News Journal’s 77-year run, early in 1993 the Consumer Bulletin evolved into the North Okaloosa Bulletin and grew from tabloid to broadsheet size under new publisher Jim Knudsen, who later renamed it the Crestview News Leader.
THE BULLETIN
In 1995, the News Leader competed with four former North Okaloosa Bulletin writers, who established the free weekly Citizen Review, which lasted two years.
In the early 2000s, Knudsen renamed his newspaper the Crestview News Bulletin. Mid-decade, the Northwest Florida Daily News opened a Crestview bureau and began publishing The Hub, a freestanding Wednesday North Okaloosa County section.
Upon Knudsen’s 2007 sale of the News Bulletin to Daily News publisher Freedom Communications, The Hub ceased publication and its staff merged with the News Bulletin’s.
Next week, the News Bulletin, now a GateHouse Media newspaper, observes its 40th year of bringing North Okaloosa County residents all the news affecting them and their neighbors.
BREAKING NEWS
Reviewing old Okaloosa County newspapers reveals interesting tidbits of the community’s zeitgeist. The Okaloosa News, Jan. 21, 1916: “Mesdames Mary Scranton, Bessie Brown and Martha Early made a business trip to Camp Walton last Tuesday.”
Okaloosa Messenger, Oct. 3, 1929: “Mr. J.M. Green, general manager of the Gulf Electric Company, who sees to the pumping of all the city water, informs us that the town uses more than 1,123,200 gallons of water per month.”
Okaloosa Messenger, Mar. 19, 1931: “The niftiest thing in town now is the unique radio ‘Little Doc’ Enzor has installed in his new Chevrolet.”
West Florida Daily Globe, Jan. 22, 1953: “Okaloosa County (School) Superintendent Lance Richbourg said…that the problem of ending segregation is an educational one that could not be legislated ‘down peoples’ throats.’”
Okaloosa News-Journal, July 3, 1975: “The former tax assessor agreed to repay all the money, approximately $38,000, the prosecution alleged he embezzled over a four-and-a-half-year period.”
Crestview News Leader, March 9, 1994: “’We are working on getting the downtown image improved,’ said (City Councilwoman Brenda) Bush. ‘With the AmTrak [sic] station in town, arrivals would be more inclined to check out the area if it looked more inviting.’”
Crestview News Bulletin, Aug. 31, 2005: “Okaloosa County residents are breathing a sigh of relief this week…Last Friday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center projections for Hurricane Katrina had it aimed for the area between Destin and Navarre.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: North Okaloosa newspapers keep residents informed more than 100 years (PHOTOS)