From the Fidelity Bank Foundation studio, PBS Kansas Presents One on One with Victor Hogstrom.

This is where the movers and shakers of Kansas come to talk about life and the lessons learned along the way.

My guest this week is newspaper publisher David Seaton.

Seaton is president of Winfield Publishing Company, which produces the Cowley Courier Traveler and the Newkirk Herald Journal.

His familys ownership of the company goes back to the 1940s.

This fourth generation newsman has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

He worked as a reporter at newspapers in Florida and Southern California before returning to Kansas to work at the family paper in 2004.

David later took over as publisher from his father, David Seaton, Sr., who retired in 2009 and passed away in 2020.

Coming up, we'll talk about the challenges of running a small town newspaper in this rapidly evolving digital age.

And we'll discuss the importance of quality journalism in an era of hyper partisanship and information overload.

Then there is the family legacy.

Well, we'll get into that as well as I go one on one with newspaper publisher David Seaton.

Right now.

Hello.

And thank you for joining us.

I'm Victor Hogstrom, and I'm so pleased to welcome David Seaton to the program.

David, it's a pleasure to have you.

We have a lot to talk about on about your background and your very interesting story.

Now, you began your life in the Cowley County communities of Ark City.

And what's the other one?

Winfield.

Winfield, thank you.

And how did it all begin over there?

Your whole family roots?

Well, I we moved to Winfield in the late seventies when my father, Frederick David Seaton, decided to finally join the family newspaper business.

He had avoided it for a while, but my family, the business traces back to-- I'm fourth generation in the newspaper business.

And so he had done some other things.

But we moved to Winfield in late seventies when I was a young child and and I grew up there and went to, you know, graduated high school there and, you know, managed to avoid being a newspaper carrier.

You mean a paper boy?

Paper boy?

Yeah.

Yeah, I, I was kind of resistant to doing what my dad did, and, but, you know how things change and, you know, you make different decisions when you grow up.

And I ended right in the same field that that he did.

Well, how could you resist when journalism runs deep in your family's history, why did you try to even avoid it?

Well, I don't know.

Probably just a rebellious boy, you know.

And I had two little two older sisters.

I have two older sisters.

And they got involved pretty early.

I think they were interns of newspaper in high school.

And I just kind of wanted to do my own thing and was resistant to following conventions a little bit.

So but then I went to University of Kansas and studied history there.

And, did do an internship during college at the at the newspaper in Winfield.

And so it did get into my my blood there.

And maybe I finally kind of did what I was always meant to do.

But you attended one of the finest journalism schools in America, Northwestern, and you had a master's degree.

I got a master's in journalism from Northwestern University outside Chicago.

Right.

My undergrad was it was history.

And I wrote a little bit for the campus newspaper there at KU, but I was not a journalism major, so but when it came time to graduate from college and I wasn't sure what the heck I was going to do, I sort of looked around and thought about my experience, like, okay, yeah, maybe I will do this journalism thing because I enjoyed it.

I was interested in public affairs and what was going on with government and it seemed like a natural thing.

And, and I had of course, help from my family and encouragement and so.

So what were you aiming toward in life had you not become a journalist?

That's a good question.

I think I maybe thought about law school or even staying in academia.

I liked research and I liked history.

So maybe one of those two things I don't know.

So, David, what would have happened to your family newspaper, such a legacy if you had not gotten into it?

Well, to take it over.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I don't know, maybe one of my two sisters would have been sucked into it.

They are they're part owners, but they're not involved on a day to day basis.

So I don't know.

Well, your father was a well-respected, highly accomplished newspaper man in Cowley County and I may also say he served on the board of PBS Kansas, once upon a time.

What are the most important things that he taught you in your lifetime?

Oh, wow, Victor, that's a big question.

You know, my dad, he passed away in 2020 and left a big legacy.

And I really came to admire my dad after being kind of rebellious and not wanting to do what he did.

I came to really admire him and we became very close in the latter years of his life.

After I moved back to Kansas and joined the family newspaper business.

And so I admire his integrity, his intellectual curiosity, his support and love for his family and for myself.

He as far as being a newspaper publisher, the way he went about trying to make sure that the newspaper was part of the community, you would say is the as the community goes, so goes the newspaper being heavily involved in things in civic life and also standing up for what's right at the same time and trying to report the truth and holding government officials accountable.

And so lots of lessons from my dad and I try to try to keep that legacy alive.

So when he detected that you were not interested in the newspaper business in your early days, was he mad at you?

No, I don't think he was mad.

And he didn't really pressure me.

But he I always felt like the door was open to the possibility.

And so when I was ready that he he was encouraging.

And when I the path was actually graduated from Northwestern.

And then and then my first full time newspaper job was in Florida, right in a small, relatively small paper in Florida.

And then I went to California and and every so often my dad would ask me, hey, you know, we got a job available, or if you want to come back, you can.

And so finally, I got to the point where, you know, and I think that might be a pretty good deal.

You know, I kind of like the life he seems to have.

And and coming back to the small town and starting to raise a family eventually seemed to be the right decision.

So I finally did.

And you made him happy?

Yeah, I think he was pretty happy.

And he trained you in the management of the newspaper.

He did.

Yeah.

The idea was that I would try to get some experience in every department.

It's a small community newspaper.

You know, when I first came back to Kansas from Southern California, we had the Winfield Publishing Company had the Winfield Daily Courier and the Kansas City Traveler and the Newkirk Herald Journal, which is a small weekly across the border in Oklahoma.

So I tried to learn different through different departments and facets of each newspaper, and he helped me a lot.

The person who actually probably did the most on the ground training for me was our general manager and his name was Lloyd Craig.

He passed away a few years ago as well too.

Lloyd, who was with the paper, if I'm not mistaken, for 55 years.

Wow.

So he was quite a role model as far as the day to day operations.

Mm hmm.

So when did the paper become the Cowley Courier Traveler?

That was in 2016.

And what business decisions with the the state of the newspaper industry as the print in newspaper kind of declines in popularity and things move online, you know, financial pressures sort of forced us to decide, okay, we're going to have to make some do some consolidation and find efficiencies.

And so those those two newspaper, those two communities are ten miles apart, you know, and so we were already sharing resources, so it made sense to combine them into one county wide, more regional publication.

So would you classify that as the best business decision you've made?

Well, I don't know about best it was, but it did.

The paper is still alive.

The paper's still going.

Yeah, that's true.

And that a lot of people ask, how are things going?

You know, at the at the newspaper?

And I say, our doors are still open and we still got thousands of customers that were pleasing every day or and sometimes not pleasing.

That's part of it, of course, too.

But so it was definitely the right decision.

I don't see how we could have avoided that.

So what other changes have you made since you have since you took over the paper?

Oh, gosh.

A lot a lot of changes in the operational structure.

We probably eight or nine years ago, we went to a all mail delivery.

So, you know, the paper boy system, the paper route system, we ended that and went to the mail with, you know, that was a business decision.

And it was kind of sad because of that tradition of having young boys and girls deliver the paper and motor route carriers.

So that was difficult, but it was something we felt we had to do.

That was a big event and not too long ago we ended up closing down our press.

This was in February.

We maintained a press for well up to, you know, recently where a lot of newspapers across the country have shut down their press and outsourced it.

We held on for quite a while, but things like equipment issues and personnel issues led us to decide that we were going to get our newspaper printed in Ponca City, Oklahoma, which is right across the border.

So, David, what is the biggest challenge that you face today with the newspaper?

The biggest challenge is there's many, but the biggest one is kind of what I think I referenced earlier is just the change in how people are consuming information and news.

You know, it's so much is going to the digital platform.

And so people sort of substitute social media in their Facebook newsfeed for actual news today, you know, which is really kind of understandable but kind of sad because a lot of that is gossip and innuendo and and not fact checked.

And so trying to battle against that keep ourselves established as the credible, reliable source of news and information for our area is something we really focus on and trying to make sure, you know, that our advertisers are pleased and we're helping them get their message out.

So there's lots of challenges, but that's the number one.

But what about the the currency of the news?

Social media now has a tendency to really update the news and give you the latest.

What about the newspaper or how is it being handled?

Well, we, of course, have a website and we have quite a few people who look at their website every day.

And when we also are on social media, Facebook mostly pretty much exclusively.

And so what we use Facebook essentially to promote our own stories, you know, get people to come to our website, right?

And so so we play in that world.

But, you know, we're a newspaper.

We've got to check facts.

We're not a TV station.

We're not an online exclusively publication.

So we try to get things out quickly.

But more importantly, we need to make sure we get things right and provide some context.

And that's really that's really our core of what we do.

We can't compete with the social media getting stuff out there right now or TV even so.

So as you've dealt with the challenges in the newspaper business, you also had to face some real big personal challenges.

In 2012, you lost your wife Shannon to breast cancer.

Tell us about that.

And how did you cope with it?

That's right.

In 2012, she died of breast cancer.

She had a severe form of breast cancer that first occurred.

It was diagnosed in 2010.

So she live for a couple of years.

It's called inflammatory pre breast cancer, which is a rare form and pretty severe.

I'd never heard of it before, so got quite an education in that.

So when she passed away I was left with two kids, three and six years old and a stepson who was early teens and he went to live with his father.

So that was difficult to to kind of lose him.

At the same time, my world was completely thrown upside down and I didn't really know what to do.

So I had to readjust quite a bit and I work had always been the sort of the priority or one of the biggest priorities.

I had to kind of scale back from that, you know, and let other people do things that I was doing and so I could readjust to make sure that caretaking of my kids became a big priority.

And I had to find daycare and figure out where, how to get them places.

And I'm very blessed to have a job that I could be flexible with, right?

That I could do that and take time off work.

And so I'm very grateful for that.

And so it was really tough.

I was scared and I was fearful and I was angry.

And I, you know, expressed all these things to certain people and hopefully appropriate ways to try to get through the difficulty of it.

And I think I think, overall, it's like I like to say, my kids seem to be doing pretty well.

I don't think I've screwed them up too much.

And one, there's sort of silver linings in tragedies, as I'm sure.

we talked a little bit about your experience raising children on your own, too.

So we have that in common.

And, you know, one of the silver linings in this difficulty is how close I am to my children.

Right.

I wouldn't probably have the amazing relationship I do have with them and the kind that I have with them, if it was still the two parent household.

So not that that's, right or wrong or good or bad, but it is.

And so I appreciate that.

So there's probably a lot more to be said about that, but I'll leave it at that.

So now you have a with a wife gone, youre still doing well with the kids and and they're all happy.

Yeah.

Well its challenging.

Yeah.

Teenage son and now a teenage daughter and so the day to day parenting and and trying to make sure everybody's where they're supposed to be and and doing well can be sometimes difficult.

But but yeah, I'm very proud of both of them, you know, and I, you know, love them so much.

And we're a tight unit, close family, you know, and and I'm very grateful for that.

How challenging it was compared as you manage the paper going to work and being the publisher of a newspaper.

What were the surprises that you discovered?

It can be difficult.

Like I said, I enjoy the flexibility of, of having to, of being able to just sort of drop everything at the moment and go, you know, pick a kid up or take them to the dentist office or and go to their sporting events.

They both are involved in activities and music and sports.

And so I'm able to see most of that.

And the the staff at the newspaper, especially after my wife first passed away, was so supportive and helpful and understanding.

And they put up with me, you know, and I'm sure they they probably, you know, might have questioned some of my decisions, but they understood and and the community at large is small community.

When something like that happens and you have friends and family and even people you don't know step up to help you, it's it really does give you a sense of comfort and strength.

Yeah.

So what advice would you give to another parent, male or female, that finds him or herself in a similar situation?

I think there's the whether you have kids or not, you suffer a loss of that magnitude.

And, eventually, if we live long enough, all of us will at some point.

It's proper and okay to to grieve, to mourn and mourning means, you know, express the pain and the difficulty you're going through in some form or fashion.

And it's okay to do that.

In fact, it's good to do that.

And crying is okay and tears can be cleansing and and hopefully people find a way to do that.

So that's one of the first things I tell people.

And, and secondly, just keep plugging along best you can one day at a time and things will eventually change.

The loss doesn't go away, but it's sort of reconstitutes itself, is part of your life, where you can kind of you're okay with it, even though it still hurts.

And I hope that I can be a person to provide some understanding and comfort and identification with people who are going through that same similar things.

Now, I try to do that.

So let's take it to the light side, play a little game that we do on this program.

And this one is called Either Or.

You Tell Me which you prefer and why.

Okay.

Books or movies?

Oh, I'm supposed to say, books.

Because that sounds more intellectual, right answer, but it's probably going to be movies.

So, yeah, I don't know.

I just I love movies.

I love watching movies with my kids, especially my son.

He's he just he loves movies.

And we like to look at Rotten Tomatoes reviews, you know, and talk about them.

We see all the Marvel movies.

I'm getting tired of those a little bit, frankly.

We saw the latest Black Panther movie, which which we liked and I liked.

It was really good.

I recommend that one.

So probably movies.

Okay, fiction or nonfiction?

Nonfiction.

And why is that?

Oh, that's a good question.

I've never been too big into fiction.

I've always, I guess, liked real life stories.

The real thing, I guess.

So maybe that has to do with journalism, you know, I mean, it's kind of endlessly fascinating, isn't it?

You know, people's lives.

So I do, I will read a little some fiction and have.

Ernest Hemingway was one of my kind of, you know, idols when I was younger and learning about life.

But, non nonfiction.

Yeah.

Football or basketball?

Basketball.

Why?

I played.

I played both sports growing up and both in high school, but I just always loved basketball.

From the first time I shot a basket, which might have been like in third, second or third grade, I think.

And just love it and played it in high school.

I thought I might go play at the college level or something, but that didn't happen and went to University of Kansas, where basketball is huge.

So, yeah.

Did you play for Winfield High School?

I did, yeah.

Oh, wow.

I did.

We we were terrible.

That's why you didn't play for Kansas?

Yeah, I guess, yeah.

What about city or country?

City.

Okay, why is that?

And this is a relative term, right?

Living in a small town, it's sort of like some people think it's the country, but it's not, I live in the in town near downtown in our Kansas City.

And I can't see myself living outside of the town.

I don't know.

I just like the fabric of a community, being part of that.

Yeah.

So tell me about the role that local newspapers play in small communities.

A big role, that role, that role has receded some because of what we talk about, you know, the the how things have changed.

But the newspapers are the the chronicler of the community, and we tell the story of the community.

And we we tell we discuss the triumphs and sometimes pitfalls of of you and your neighbors.

And, there was a I attended a seminar at Poynter Institute, I think it was when I in Florida, when I first got a newspaper job, which was in Florida.

And I remember and I don't remember his name, but he was a great writer for the Fort Lauderdale paper, and he did a presentation about how well we do in newspapers and in journalism is the same.

You can draw a direct line to what the first cavemen did when they came back from the hunt and wrote the hunt down, in like pictures on the cave room wall and to try to give meaning to what was going on in people's lives, that's what we do.

And I've never forgot that.

That's what we do, you know.

And aside from that, we're just an important part of the community, we where we help with giving donations and things like that.

And we help promote the good things of the community.

We tell the whole truth, but we as a community newspaper, we really need to try to help the community and institutions thrive.

So David, what are your thoughts on the current state of affairs of journalism in America today?

Well, we're in big flux and transition period.

But why is that?

Well, technology, I it's technology and technology has loosened or sort of created, helped facilitate what might be in our human nature, to and maybe a negative part of our human nature, to sort of validate our own viewpoint.

And then we could do that so much easier now online and with social media.

And that's a scary thing a little bit.

And so.

But I'm hopeful and I am encouraged by a lot of the journalism I see, whether it's in printed form or online.

There's still a lot of great journalism and investigative pieces and and speaking truth to power and holding governments accountable and telling great stories.

It's happening out there just in different format.

So journalism, at its core, is still strong.

And I think it will survive.

It's it is surviving will survive in some form or fashion.

But some of the needs to tell the stories of communities and people, places and things.

Right.

Yeah.

And that's what you guys do so well here and what we're trying to.

Do and that's what you do with your small town paper.

And my final question, David, is the most important lesson that you've learned throughout your entire professional career?

The most important lesson I've learned.

Wow.

Nothing comes to mind quickly, but I'm going to say patience.

And I'll explain that by saying that when I first came back to the family newspaper business, I was a hotshot reporter who had covered these huge counties, worked at big newspapers.

And, you know, and I was ready to tell these small town newspaper folks what to do and how to do it.

And through some stumbling and trial and error, I learned lessons in humility and I watched my dad, how he operated and Lloyd Craig, the person who I mentioned earlier, the general manager, how he operated.

And at first I was like, why are they why are they putting up with it?

Why, you know, how are they doing it?

But now I get it.

After being here almost 20 years, okay, I see, and maintaining relationships, going, allowing difficulties and not cutting things off too quickly and just the that there's a word for it I'm forgetting.

But this that kind of patience, you know, to to allow things to unfold and let people sort of operate the way they need to be always keeping the goal in mind and not not letting things stray too much.

And let things take their course.

That things take their course.

Yeah.

David Allen Seaton, Publisher of the Cowley Courier Traveler and the Newkirk Herald Journal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For joining us on One on One, it is a pleasure.

Appreciate it.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of One on One.

Please share your question or comments with me.

The email address is oneonone@kpts.org.

Until next time.

I'm Victor Hogstrom.

Do Take Care and be safe.