Devils Lake Daily Journal
Friday, September 24, 1982
Title: Daily Journal Sold
Author: N/A
Roy H. Park of Ithaca, New York, today acquired the assets of the Devils Lake Daily Journal, published Monday through Friday with a circulation of 5,500. Included in the purchase also was The Country Peddler, a controlled distribution weekly publication which is distributed to 22,000 residents and businesses in the area. The owners of the Journal were M.R. (Miff) Graham, long-time publisher of the Journal, and his son, Mack Graham.
The purchase brings to 22 the number of dailies in the Park Group and is the first property to be owned by Park in North Dakota.
The Journal was established in 1905 and has been owned by the Graham family for over 60 years. In 1913, the father of M.R. Graham began to work at the newspaper as a bookkeeper and bought the publication in 1920.
The Grahams are both past presidents of the Northwest Daily Newspaper Association, composed of dailies in a four-state area and M.R. Graham is a past president of the North Dakota Associated Press newspapers. The younger Graham is presently a director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association.
The Grahams said their decision to sell to Park was the result of their association with Roy Park over many years and their being familiar with the careful and planned, steady growth of the Park Newspaper Group.
“In addition, we also are familiar with Park’s farm radio station in Yankton which beams a signal into 7 states in the Midwest including North Dakota. We feel comfortable dealing with Roy Park, and we know he will carry on the kind of responsible community journalism which the residents of Devils Lake want and deserve,” they said.
Park said, “We are quite familiar with this important area of the Midwest having owned and operated Radio Station WNAX in Yankton, South Dakota, for a number of years. In addition, we have owned the NEWS-PRESS in Nebraska since 1975, the oldest newspaper now being published in the state of Nebraska. Most of our newspapers are located in small communities with a rural setting, and we think we have the expertise and experience to provide a quality publication for our readers. We are very much looking forward to becoming a part of the Devils Lake community, and we intend to provide a daily newspaper of which the residents will be proud.”
Park, who is president and sole owner of Park Broadcasting, Inc., and Park Newspapers, Inc., directs a communications organization which includes 21 broadcasting stations and 62 newspapers. He was the first in the broadcasting business to gain ownership of the full complement of 21 broadcast properties permitted by Federal communications Commission regulation — 7 television, 7 AM, and 7 FM radio.
Park purchased his first newspaper at Warner Robins, Georgia, in 1972, and his newspaper group now operates in 12 states. Based on total circulation, Park Newspapers places in the top 30 percent among the 170 group publishers in the nation. With the 40 weekly and semi-weekly publications that he owns, total circulation for the entire group amounts to well over half a million.
For 25 years, Park was a director of the multi-billion dollar ConAgra, Inc., with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, and served as chairman of the executive committee for a number of years until his retirement from the board in 1981. In addition, he has served and is serving as a director of a number of large corporations including the Raymond Corporation, Greene, New York; First Bank and Trust Company, Ithaca, New York, and its parent-holding company, Security New York State Corporation in Rochester, New York.
Park, a native of North Carolina, graduated from North Carolina State University and now serves as a trustee of his alma mater from which he was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree in 1978.
Headquarters for the Park Companies is located in Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell University. Also located in this city is Ithaca College with its well-known School of Communications. Park was elected a trustee of the College in 1973 and currently serves as chairman of the board of trustees.
Park has been active in the New York State Publishers Association and is the immediate past president.
He also serves as a member of the endowment committee of the University of North Carolina School of Journalism at Chapel Hill, and, from 1972 to 1981, Park served as a director for the Eastern Region of the Wachovia Band and Trust Company with its main office in Raleigh, North Carolina.