- Media - Janesville Sesquicentennial
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- [Two photographs, one of Howard BLISS, the other of
Harry BLISS.]
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- BLISS family guided growth of the Gazette
- Mention Janesville and newspapers in the same breath, and
one name comes to mind: BLISS.
- Four generations of the BLISS family have overseen
publication of The Janesville Gazette since
- Howard Festus BLISS bought the newspaper in 1883.
The son of an Illinois farmer, Howard BLISS gave up his
saddlery hardware business for newspapers, starting a family
tradition that remains strong in 1985.
- Fewer than 2,000 people subscribed to the struggling Gazette
when Howard BLISS made it his
- vocation. Although Howard's concerted efforts boosted the
Gazette's standing, the newspaper business wasn't too lucrative
in those days, forcing him to take a job as superintendent of
Wisconsin School for the Blind in 1894. He held the post for
six years.
- Howard's son, Harry, inherited newspaper ink in his blood
and started work at the Gazette in the
- 1890s. As Howard and Harry devoted themselves to building
up the business, Janesville's economic and population growth
overflowed into the newspaper's waiting pages. Revenues grew,
and the Gazette's circulation reached 5,000 in 1909.
- Upon his father's death in 1919, Harry BLISS became
president of the Gazette. Besides working
- to improve the newspaper's content, Harry expanded the Gazette's
role in the community and initiated new ideas that benefited
its readers.
- He organized calf and pig clubs and corn-growing contests,
forerunners of the 4-H movement,
- because he wanted a closer relationship between the Gazette
and its rural readers. He also originated the first automobile
delivery system in the state so farmers could receive their newspaper
the same day it was printed.
- Harry was also responsible for the expansion of the Gazette
Printing Co. into radio in 1930, when
- the business purchased the city's first radio station, WCLO.
- Harry's sons, Sidney and Robert, joined the staff in the
1920s. Sidney started on the advertising
- side and eventually managed the business end of the newspaper;
Robert began as a reporter and became editor.
- Harry BLISS died in 1937, and his sons assumed the
roles of publishers, becoming the third
- generation of BLISSes to publish The Janesville Gazette.
- Robert and Sidney led the Gazette through some challenging
times, particularly during the war
- years when newsprint rationing kept editions thin and gas-rationing
made delivery to outside areas difficult. Despite the obstacles,
the Gazette's circulation - which had reached 14,600 when the
brothers took the newspaper's reins in 1937 - continued to grow.
- The Gazette Printing Co.'s holdings also grew. In 1947, the
company received a license for an FM
- radio station, and WCLO-FM went on the air.
- In 1967, the same year the BLISS brothers broke ground
for a new Gazette-WCLO building,
- Sidney suffered a stroke. He died two years later, leaving
Robert and the next generation to carry on the family tradition.
- That fourth generation included two members who were more
than willing to step into the business:
- Crandell, Robert's son, joined the company in 1956 and today
is vice president of marketing; Sidney Jr., known to most people
as Skip, started with the paper in 1970 and today is general
manager.
- Like their fathers, their grandfather and their great-grandfather,
Crandell and Skip have weathered
- the bad with the good. Among the most difficult periods was
a two-year strike in the late 1960s, but the newspaper endured,
as it always has.
- Over the years, however, the good times have far outnumbered
the bad. The BLISSes have seen
- their newspaper grow and prosper, and the Gazette Printing
Co. has continued the expansion that began with the purchase
of WCLO in 1930. The company now owns four newspapers and five
AM-FM radio stations in eight cities and a long-distance telephone
subsidiary,Wisconsin Telecommunications Technology Inc., which
started in Janesville in 1984.
- Besides the BLISS family, the Gazette Printing Co.'s
growth in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s
- was spearheaded by Marshall JOHNSTON, who started
with the company in 1962 as assistant to the president and worked
his way up to president of the company and general manager of
the newspaper; he relinquished the latter title in 1983, when
Skip BLISS was named general manager.
- The family that has been synonymous with Janesville newspapers
since Chester Arthur was
- president celebrated a milestone in 1983 when it marked a
century of publishing The Janesville Gazette. The BLISSes were
honored by the Janesville Chamber of Commerce and city officials
for their "profound influence" on the community.
- Accepting the honor was then-79-year-old Robert BLISS,
who remains the Gazette's publisher
- today.Still vibrant and still contributing to the newspaper,
Robert BLISS thanked the community for its support and
said Janesville's "heart and soul" rests with families
such as his and their commitment to each other and the city.
- He should know. Few, if any, families have shown a greater
commitment to Janesville that his, and
- few have received so much from the community it return.
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