History of the Sierra Vista Herald

Ky Richards Jr. and his wife, Lois, started printing the Huachuca Herald on Fridays starting Oct. 7, 1955. They put out the first editions on a typewriter, composing stories on their kitchen table. They had come from Hawaii and Lois wore a muumuu while selling ads. She also was pregnant.

The couple decided to start printing the paper twice a week and did so starting Oct. 8, 1967. At that time, the newspaper hit the streets on Sundays and Wednesdays.

On May 22, 1968, the couple sold the newspaper to Sig H. Atkinson of Chandler and Milton Wick, founder of Wick Communications.

On Aug. 21, 1968, there was a new printing process installed called offset printing. It is still used across the world today. The Herald started publishing via offset with 3,000 subscribers in 1968.

By 1969, the community was big enough that the Herald could merge with the Douglas Daily Dispatch, forming the Sierra Vista Herald-Dispatch, a name many people who have lived here long enough still call us to this day.

Meanwhile, over in Bisbee, Bill Epler bought the Bisbee newspaper from Phelps Dodge in 1971 and changed it from a daily newspaper to a weekly. He sold the newspaper to the Wick family in 1974 and it was changed back to a daily on Oct. 4, 1976, when Walt Wick and Milton Wick were publishers of the Herald. At that time, they combined the Herald with the Bisbee Daily Review.

In 1976, the newspaper added The Associated Press wire service news, and then it began publishing five days a week: another sign of a community on the rise.

It was nearly five years later on Sunday, June 14, 1981, that a Sunday edition was added.

The Herald building has undergone a series of additions since the first office was built at 102 Fab Ave. in 1961. It was expanded by 1,800 square feet in 1968.

In 1975, a new pressroom and business offices were added, with the area of the building going from 4,907 square feet up to 8,400 square feet.

In 1985, extra newsprint storage was needed, so an additional 1,862 square feet was added. Things were quiet for a while until 1996 when the front office/classified space was built in 1996.

In 2002, a brand-new pressroom facility was built, and it opened in 2003. The Hager Building at 400 Veterans Drive added 9,100 square feet to the newspaper’s still-growing facilities. Along with the new building came a new press with much more color capability and a higher printing speed. From 2004 through August of 2017 the newspaper was seven days per week. In September of 2017 the newspaper was reformatted to a tall tab and became a five day a week publication.

In 2019, Herald/Review Media won the prestigious Arizona Newspaper Associations’ Newspaper of the Year Award for excellence in editorial content as well as advertising.

In 2020, due to the pandemic, Herald/Review Media had to make a tough decision to reduce publication days from five to three, but increased page count and content on the three print publication days. Today members who subscribe to Herald/Review Media can receive 24/7 access to news and information at myheraldreview.com and a print edition delivered Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. In June of 2020, Herald/Review Media introduced the “County” edition serving all of Cochise County on Wednesdays. Single copy sales have been expanded to three days per week in many communities throughout Cochise County.