Work done inside those walls made a big difference

Return of Bob Henke was a big hit among readers

By Ken Tingley

When I walked out of 76 Lawrence Street in the summer of 2020, it was a shell of its former self.

The press had already been removed.

Fork lifts no longer scooted along the back ramps moving newsprint.

Cars, pickup trucks and vans no longer waited anxiously along the loading dock after midnight.

And the newsroom was way too quiet.

When I arrived in the fall of 1988, the newsroom was a sardine can. Reporters were jammed in rows where if you backed your chair up a few inches, you rammed the person behind you. The air conditioning had been broken all summer and tempers were short. There were arguments. The newsroom union was in contentious negotiations with the publisher. But a Sunday newspaper had been introduced and soon there was color photographs on every page.

Business was good and we all were young.

When the circus came to town, a railroad car pulled right up to our loading dock where at night you could hear the lions roar. If that wasn’t incentive to make deadline, I don’t know was. Each year there was a circus parade from The Post-Star down to the Civic Center. Often a reporter or editor was asked to ride the elephant leading the parade.

But 76 Lawrence Street - home of The Post-Star for the past half-century - is just a building with a leaky roof. The newspaper announced it was selling it and moving downtown to a location more suited for its needs.

The heart and soul at 76 Lawrence Street were the men and women who worked there for the past 50 years or so. From Wally, Holly, Larry and “Winch” in the back shop to Tom Frawley in advertising, Sam Gayle in production and Bill Sara in circulation.

When I saw the photo of the corner of Lawrence and Cooper Street, I remembered the gregarious “Winch” from his years in the back shop. He was planning a retirement of golf when he complained of some indigestion and headed down to the drug store. He crashed his car into the corner of the building on his way back after suffering a heat attack and died right there. I don’t think his spirit ever left. He embodied the heart and soul of all us who inhabited that building.

It was never the same after Jim Marshall left. The parade of publishers that followed never really understood Glens Falls or journalism. There was talk of firing me - or one of the other editors - more than once.

I’ll always have fond memories of 76 Lawrence Street and the great work that was done inside those walls.

For me, working with Greg Brownell, Will Doolittle, Bob Condon, Pat Dowd and Mark Mahoney was what I will remember most. All those late nights. Correction, all those early mornings, and the occasional late night stop at Dango’s.

The building was just the backdrop for the great journalism we did.

The reality is that it was never that great a building. There was a renovation in the 1990s where jackhammers blasted away at the concrete while we attempted interviews on the phone. There were times you came to work not knowing what happened to your desk.

We bought the building next door for advertising and circulation, and the newsroom grew and flourished. It was there we had the annual kids Halloween Party after they had done their trick or treating through the newsroom - that was my wife’s idea by the way.

It was in that newsroom where we did our best work on that Sept. 11 so many years ago.

It was there in that conference room we hosted the likes of every politician imaginable and a constant stream of concerned citizens. It was there we argued over what stories went on the front page and sometimes whether a story should run at all. It was also where Mark Mahoney learned he won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Post-Star was a meeting place.

It was a place for readers to go to complain and sometimes picket.

And every once in awhile, someone would send down some donuts or bagels in appreciation of a job well done, and we would forward it to the soup kitchen because it wouldn’t be right for journalists to accept gifts. I wonder what the Supreme Court justices would think of that.

It was the place where issues were addressed and the police scanner wailed relentlessly. It was where we all rushed when a railroad car began leaking gas in Fort Edward and the Ethan Allen sank.

Photographers from around the state used to use our darkroom - way before digital - during the state basketball tournament.

I once kicked a hole in the back door after an especially heated exchange with the managing editor.

It was disconcerting to see the negativity about the selling of the old building. It was startling how short the memories are about the great work we did.

The Post-Star won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009. Small newspapers just don’t do that. And there isn’t even a sign somewhere to commemorate that.

Nine times the newspaper won newspaper of the year.

The state basketball tournament coverage was unparalleled. What small newspaper does shot charts? The Post-Star did.

The newspaper won dozens of national honors for community journalism that simply made Glens Falls and its surrounding communities a better place to live.

There were stories on underage drinking, the stigma of suicide, the plight of the working poor, the problems at the Madden Hotel, domestic violence, teenage suicide, lying politicians, corrupt public officials and the opioid crisis.

When Maury Thompson’s wife Nancy was dying of cancer, he wrote about her final days.

When Will Doolittle’s wife Bella was diagnosed with early onset Alzehimer’s, they did a podcast for our website.

The building had nothing to do with any of that.

It was the people.

It will always be the people.

And without those people doing that job, this community will be worse off.

Never forget that.

It was great to see outdoors columnist Bob Henke writing again this week.

Henke back

When Bob Henke’s newspaper column was dropped, I offered him a place in this newsletter to continue his column.

Bob took me up on that offer this past week. I was not the only one thrilled to see Bob writing again. 

I hired Bob as our outdoors columnist when I was sports editor at The Post-Star 30 years ago. We battled continually over the length of his column and I eventually lost.

More people read Bob’s column on Thursday than any other previous column on The Front Page. We got 30 new subscribers, too. There were plenty of comments about how much readers missed Bob’s writing.

Bob says he will be back and submit periodic columns for The Front Page. He hinted he will soon be writing his outdoors column again, too.

It’s another indication to me how much people enjoy and long for commentary and columns in their daily lives.

Flynn promoted

This past spring I met Andy Flynn at a journalism conference in Albany.

Andy is the editor of The Lake Placid News. Within minutes of meeting me, Andy was opening up about his lifetime struggle with weight and recent bariatric surgery. His trip to Albany was his first road trip since the surgery and he was worried about the temptation of too much food on the road.

I wrote a column about Andy and his health crisis.

This past week I interviewed Andy again about a project he was doing to train the next generation of journalists.

I asked him how things were going. He said things were well.

A day or so later, Ogden Newspapers announced that Andy had been promoted to editor and publisher of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Lake Placid News.

Flynn is a Tupper Lake native who has spent the last 10 years as editor of the Lake Placid News.

Ogden Newspapers has made a good choice.

Glens Falls in title game

Glens Falls has had another great football season this year. It is unbeaten and on its way to the Section II championship game Saturday in Guilderland.

I’ve gone to Glens Falls games for a number of years. I enjoy the high school atmosphere and sitting in the sunshine in the bleachers at Putt LaMay Field. But this year has been an adjustment.

Glens Falls put up lights and that meant “Friday Night Lights” football.

I’m not crazy about it. Glens Falls has dominated so much in its games, that I’ve usually been able to leave at halftime without missing anything. But this past week was much closer and by halftime, I was feeling the chill with temperatures in the 40s.

I made it almost to the end, but I miss Saturday afternoon football.

I’m glad to see the championship game Saturday has an 11 a.m. start time.

New book here

My latest collection of columns - The Last American Editor, Vol. 2 - arrived this week. I immediately got the books out to my retail partners - Ace Hardware, Chapman Museum, McKernon Gallery (Hudson Falls), Warren County Historical Society and Battenkill Books.

The one thing you need to know about the book business is that it is difficult.

I’ve appreciated the support of all the folks who have sold my books, but especially the four mentioned above.

Who would think that Ace Hardware would be the place to go to find local books?

Or the Chapman Museum?

Or McKernon Gallery over in Hudson Falls. If you haven’t been to Kendall’s jewel of a store in downtown Hudson Falls - a couple doors down from the Strand - then you are missing out.

And then there is the best darn bookstore in the Capital District - Battenkill Books. They’ve sponsored events for me and sold books at other events and they still carry all three of my books.

Check out their store in downtown Cambridge. You get the beautiful drive through the Washington County countryside for free.