As noted on the front page of this week’s edition, our family was blessed to be able to purchase three additional newspapers, which we’ll start operating Thursday of this week. The process actually began back in December when we were first contacted. After careful consideration, lots of prayer and seeking wisdom from some people we trust, we made the decision to acquire them.

This may help our friends in Catahoula Parish to understand why we didn’t take over the Catahoula newspaper when it was announced it was closing. We had just signed the Bills of Sale on the three newspapers when we found out about Catahoula. It was just the wrong timing.

All three of the newspapers we will own have special ties to our family. Many may not know this, but I actually lived in Delhi (Richland Parish) back in the early 1990s, serving as youth minister at Delhi First Baptist Church. During that time, I worked part-time at the Delhi Dispatch newspaper, a paper that sadly doesn’t exist anymore.

So, I have many friends and lifelong acquaintances in Richland Parish. When our family was traveling in full-time singing and preaching, we ministered all over that area and our circle of friends grew.

The same can be said of Tensas Parish. While I never lived there, we have ministered in churches in that area for some 20 years. In fact, some of my wife’s family lives in the St. Joseph area coming from the hills of Rosefield and I have spent much time on Lake Bruin dating all the way back to my Delhi days when we’d take our youth there for events.

And then there is Caldwell Parish. Perhaps of all three of the parishes where we’ll now be involved, Caldwell holds a special place simply because of its relationship with the Franklin Family.

Both of my parents are from Caldwell Parish. My dad, Sammy Franklin, and my mom, Janice Richmond, met and married in Caldwell Parish.

There wasn’t a holiday that occurred where we weren’t with family in Caldwell Parish, mostly with my mom’s parents (Rev. Jim and Josie Richmond) and her siblings.

If you are an older reader, you can remember that my dad frequently wrote in his weekly editorials about his youth in Caldwell Parish and how he got his start in the newspaper business with the Caldwell Watchman.

Here is an excerpt from one of his editorials originally published in 2003:

“My fascination with newspapers actually started when I was about 13 years old, as I began selling the Grit newspaper. Many of you may remember when the Grit was popular in the rural areas.

I lived in a very rural area of Caldwell Parish, but I was able to get me about 25 regular customers for the Grit. Each week when my bundle of papers came, I set out on foot to deliver them. We’re talking about houses being spread out… and it took some time to make my rounds.

When I was 14 years old, in early 1955, I visited The Caldwell Watchman to ask the owner if I could write the community news in the Mt. Pleasant area of the parish. He said yes and that started a career that has spanned more than 48 years.

Later that year when I started high school at Columbia, I began working parttime at the Watchman. I worked every afternoon and on Saturdays during school and every day during vacation periods and summers.

I continued to work at the Watchman for the next 12 years, including a year and a half I spent commuting to Northeast Louisiana University studying journalism.

In the summer of 1967, after trying unsuccessfully to purchase the Watchman from its owner, I overheard a salesman tell my boss that The Jena Times was for sale.

When I got home that afternoon, I immediately called R.W. Wagner and asked him if the paper was for sale. He said yes and we set up a time to meet that Saturday. After several visits to Jena, I convinced Mr. Wagner that I could handle the job of running the paper and he agreed to sell to me.”

As noted in this article, my dad’s dream was to purchase The Caldwell Watchman. He wanted to stay in Caldwell and run that newspaper, but it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, he came to Jena and built one of the most successful weekly newspapers in the state.

Throughout his life, he’d frequently talk about The Watchman. He hated to see it decline and he really had a desire for the people of Caldwell Parish to have a great parish newspaper they could be proud of.

In the many years that I was blessed to be by his side at this newspaper, we’ve talked about the Caldwell paper many times. He tried, unsuccessfully to acquire it prior to it being sold to LSN, once again being denied his dream of owning his childhood newspaper where it all started for him.

So tomorrow, as a new day dawns for Caldwell Parish, my dad’s dream will finally come to fruition. He may not be around to see it, nor do I imagine he even cares as there are far greater things occupying his time, but in my heart, I know he would be so pleased.

In this day and age when many newspapers are shutting down, one might think it crazy to own one – much less four. In fact, after the Catahoula newspaper closed, I had a friend ask me point blank, “Ya are not going to close, are you?”

My answer was an emphatic “no.” Even though there have been many changes to this newspaper that some may not like, the changes were necessary to set this newspaper on a path to be sustainable for many years.

My wife and I have researched, studied and figured out this new way of operating a newspaper and we intend to apply those same methods to the three newspapers now under our command.

Our goal is simple: Provide newspapers that help build stronger communities, keep people informed and make each community proud.

Please pray for us as we begin this new season in our lives and use what God has placed in our hands as a way to impact this world for the glory of God.