'Like a mock hero in ….

'Like a mock hero in a burlesque tragedy, he struts up and down the stage of life, magnifies ant hills into mountains, saws the air, and makes a blamed spectacle of himself.' Wheelock then continued to attack Brucker so violently that it must have deflated him because nothing more was ever made of the affair in the Star and News.

In 1895, Wheelock left the paper to join the Milwaukee Sentinel as an editorial writer and Peter Danielson, a printer from Glidden, was hired to run the Star and News. Danielson did little to improve local news coverage, as most of the news still consisted of national and world events, but he did increase the size of the paper to 12 pages. He also began printing classifieds on the front page and started sports coverage with stories on local horse races.

Two other German language newspapers were started in Medford during those years — the Duetsche Zeitung in 1887, which lasted four years, and Der Her Vetter in 1903, which failed after only one year. In 1887, the Medford Sentinel appeared, followed two years later by the Medford Republican. The two papers combined in 1901 and consolidated with the Star and News shortly thereafter.

J. H. Waggoner and J. E. Harris ran the Star and News from November 1901 until September 1902, and Waggoner and W. S. Withers ran it from September 1902 until October 1904. Then Withers ran it until June 1907 when Arthur J. Latton took it over. From 1904 until the 1930s, the paper was Progressive Republican in politics.

The paper did not stop printing national and world news directly from dailies until after the First World War, but the sensational advertising — especially patent medicine ads — began dying out after the turn of the century. Early in the 1900s local news was given more and more prominent display on the front page.

In 1919, William Conrad and family arrived in Medford and purchased a half interest in the paper from A. J. Latton. In April 1923, he purchased Latton's interest to begin a long career as publisher here.

He spruced up the want ad section, began devoting the entire front page to local news, and introduced modern type styles. Several new columns soon appeared, and a special Want Ad page was developed that would soon gain national recognition. Categorizing classified advertising under headings was new and The Star News was known as “The Paper With The Want Ads” for decades.

In 1929, the Star News absorbed the Taylor County Leader which had been operating since 1921. Two other Medford papers — the Northern Independent and the Weekly Record — were started up and existed for a brief period, but by the 1930s the Star News and the Rib Lake Herald were the only two papers in the county.

Although Conrad was to become widely known for his promotion of classified advertising — the Want Ads — he also won wide acclaim for his homey type of editorials and accounts of his travels, during which he constantly boosted his paper, Medford, northern Wisconsin, and the dairy industry.

In 1932, Conrad was elected president of the Wisconsin Press Association and the Star News was elected to a place on the 1932 All-American Weekly News Eleven by John Casey, an authority on weekly newspapers from the University of Oklahoma.

By 1936, the paper had a Vox Pop section (Latin for Voice of the People) and the paper, which now had a staff of eight, sold for $2 per year or four cents a copy. Circulation was about 3,800 copies a week and editions frequently reached 16 pages.

Conrad and the Star News continued to receive state and national recognition. As the paper's prosperity grew, the staff climbed to 14 persons by 1939. Both the paper and Conrad received numerous awards for journalistic excellence.

A Blue Streak Linotype was installed in 1939, which could set not only body type (news type) but larger headlines as well. A Linotype had probably been used beginning sometime in the teens or early 20s.

During World War II, the paper took measures to conserve newsprint to help the war effort. A great deal of the news concerned the activities of Taylor County servicemen.

See STAFF on page 14 A Kluge job press was installed in 1943. By 1951 when the Star News press run had reached 5,500, the shop also boasted a new Diamond power operated paper cutter which had been added in 1949.

Bert Amacher, who had first joined the paper in 1926, managed the Star News from 1946 until 1975.

Frank Hirsch, who had started with the Star News as a printer in 1937, became editor in 1951. He replaced Norbert 'Nick' Nolan who had served as editor since 1948. Other editors in the late 1930s and early 1940s included Doyle Buckles, Vernon Orton and Art Wichern. Conrad himself served for many years as editor and publisher.

On March 8, 1951, Conrad was killed in an auto accident near Abbotsford.

Soon after Conrad's death a Star News Partnership was formed by his four surviving sons and daughters. Later that year a new press was installed and the single copy cost of the paper was now 10 cents.

During the middle and late 1950s, the construction of three large supermarkets in Medford caused the amount of display advertising to increase. During that time Star News photographers also began using a Polaroid camera, resulting in the paper printing as many as five photos on the front page per issue.

In February 1959, The Star News moved out of its building on Main Street and into its present location on Wisconsin Avenue. The Star News was sold to a group of stockholders in 1964, and was incorporated with Bert Amacher, president and publisher; Frank Hirsch, vice president and editor; and Corliss Jensen and Bob Klinner of Medford, Frank Nikolay of Abbotsford, and Don Johnson of Neillsville as the other shareholders.

By September 1973, when the Rib Lake Herald closed its doors, The Star News was the only newspaper in Taylor County.

In 1975, Bob Anderson was hired by the stockholders to manage the paper. When Frank Hirsch retired in 1975, Tom Anderson took over as editor. Although retired, Hirsch wrote his weekly column, 'Frankly Speaking,' until 1986. At the time, The Star News was one of the largest weeklies in the state, averaging 32 broadsheet pages a week, with an average press run of 7,400 copies.

In April 1975 ‚ the 100th anniversary of the paper — The Star News began using the new photo-offset method of printing which, among other things, allowed extensive use of photos. This also marked the move of the press operations to Abbotsford with the formation of Tristar Printing.

In 1980, Tom Anderson left and was succeeded as editor by Mitch Potter. In early 1983, The Star News changed its format from a broadsheet publication to a tabloid sized newspaper. In April 1984, Potter left The Star News, being replaced by Scott Schultz of Loyal, who did not last long in the position with Don Woerpel becoming editor that June.

J.A. (Jay) and Carol O'Leary bought The Star News and the Star News Shopper in August 1986 and Bob Anderson continued to be the manager. At the time, the O'Learys owned the Tribune-Phonograph of Abbotsford-Colby, and the Record-Review of Edgar, Athens and Marathon, as well as the Central Wisconsin Shopper.

Jay O'Leary had been experimenting with computers for several years — he was so knowledgeable about computers and computer programs that he usually had to explain new equipment and software programs to computer dealers. The Star News soon became one of the first newspapers in the state, daily or weekly, to use computers for typesetting and scanning photographs.

O’Leary was inducted into the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of the pivotal role he had in The Star News and other newspapers around the state in embracing new and changing technology. Those who knew Jay knew of his fondness of technology and with being an early adopter of technology. His wife Carol comments that he had owned at least one of every Apple Computer product that had been produced.

The Star News began using pagination — designing and making up newspaper pages entirely on a computer — in 1992, becoming one of the first, if not the first, weekly newspaper in the state to do so. The Star News also was among the first newspapers in the state to have an online edition starting in the early 1990s. O’Leary was one of the driving forces pushing for internet to come to the Medford area and Taylor County in the 1990s.

Bob Anderson retired as manager in 1992, although he continued to write his weekly 'Common Tater' column until 1997.

The technology used to put the paper together has changed over the years with the paper using QuarkXpress software early in the change to pagination computers to design pages, then switching to Adobe InDesign and in 2024 made the switch to using Affinity software for page layout and design as well as Adobe products.

Just as The Star News was among the first weekly newspapers to go to pagination, it was also among the first to transition to fully digital cameras which eliminated the need for a darkroom. While the additional interview room and storage

Editor Brian Wilson talks with Restorative Justice of Taylor County Director Monelle Johnson.

Mandee Ellis is the newest employee at The Star News. She is a reporter and proofreader for the paper.

Lydia Ploeckelman (above) is a graphic designer at The Star News. Here she ia helping Steve Peterson with a job printing order. (Below left) Janna Johnson is another graphic designer with The Star News and Julie Chaplinski (below right) is the bookkeeper.

The original type used to print The Star News spells out the newspaper’s name. From the manually set type of the past to today’s computer pagination and online breaking news, The Star News continues to serve the people of Taylor County.