The summertime merger marked the end and a beginning.
Beginning the first week of August, gone was The National City News.
Gone was The Chula Vista Star.
Beginning Aug. 5, 1954, there was The Chula Vista Star-News and The National City Star- News.
(Notably, The Star scooped The News with news of the commingling but it had more to do with the Chula Vista paper publishing a day earlier than its National City counterpart rather than one reporter out hustling the other.)
Each paper’s above-the-fold headline assured readers that despite the merger each paper would retain its identity, reflecting the news and stories that were relevant to their readers.
That was probably of great comfort to readers of The News, which had been around since the early 1900s.
Stories that had detailed the activities of Mr. Leach, who made a shipment of oranges Tuesday, and Mrs. Maggie Strahl, who left for Texas that same day (The National City News, Dec. 5, 1903) and the 40 percent increase of postal receipts in National City (The National City News, Jan. 2, 1942) would still be told.
Likewise subscribers and advertisers of The Star also took solace in knowing that their newspaper wasn’t going anywhere and they could still keep track of people like City Engineer W.E. Capwell, who asked to be relieved of his position but was instead urged to take a leave of absence (The Chula Vista Star, May 9, 1930), and of Mrs. Harold Starkey’s leadership role within the Chula Vista Red Cross chapter (The Chula Vista Star, March 13, 1942).
From the comings and goings of neighbors and friends to the retention of municipal workers and all the scandals, crime sprees, tax increases, school openings, parades, recipes, columns, photo ops, opinion pieces and letters to the editor in between, local newspapers — individually or combined — and the journalists who write the stories and take pictures for them, have been there.
National Newspaper Week is Oct. 4-10.
