A leap of faith: New owners take over historic Nebraska newspaper

Thursday, January 30, 2025
Gypsy and Bob Emerick pick up a batch of newspapers, hot off the press at the McCook Gazette.

HAYES CENTER, Neb. — It’s never too late to start a new chapter in life. Just ask Bob and Gypsy (Carolyn) Emerick, who recently moved from Denver, Colo., to Southwest Nebraska and have found themselves as the new owners of a 140-year-old newspaper.

Moving here, then buying the Hayes Center Times-Republican newspaper was nowhere on the radar for the Emericks. “It was completely unexpected. I thought we would be in Denver forever,” Gypsy said.

But that changed when Gypsy visited Imperial, Neb., two years ago to purchase some molds and clay for her pottery hobby. The wide open spaces and big skies of rural Nebraska reminded her of her childhood growing up in western Pennsylvania and she knew she wanted to move here.

A retired U.S. Army veteran, Gypsy has traveled the world in her career, working in the media industry almost her entire life. She was a journalist in the Army and worked remotely for the movie company, Paramount Corp. as a project manager in the software development division. She met Bob, a machinist originally from Southern California, 10 years ago in Denver.

Although she was ready to move immediately to Southwest Nebraska, Gypsy wasn’t sure if she could convince Bob. “I told my friends, there’s no way Bob’s going to move from Denver to Nebraska,” she said. “I called him, and I was like, I love you, and I miss you, but I don’t want to come home.”

But Bob surprised her. After that first phone call, he called her the next day with a list of houses to buy in the area. Bob, who at one time made models of airplanes and satellites for the aerospace industry, was tired of the hustle and bustle of city life, including the traffic. “In Southern California, it took me two hours to get to work, three and a half hours to get home,” he said.

They first moved to a two-story house in Wauneta, but the stairs were an issue, so they’ve recently moved to a one-story house in Palisade. “The people of the community have been extremely warm and friendly,” they said.

“We have been made welcomed everywhere we’ve walked into,” added Gypsy. “We’re just so grateful for that sense of community and people. You know, it’s a small town, and we’re not from here, so that can be a thing in some places. But the people here were wonderful.”

About a year ago, in a casual conversation with friends, they found out the Hayes Center newspaper was up for sale. The Emericks spent six months mulling over the possibility of buying it.

“We have a lot of respect for the newspaper,” Gypsy said. “It will be 140 years old on April 9, so it’s one of the oldest papers in the region, and we understand how important it is to the community. It’s a journal of a people’s time and their history, so it’s a big deal and we don’t want to muck it up, you know?”

But they took the plunge and as of January of this year, they bought the paper. Since then, the Emericks have been learning the ins and outs of putting together a weekly newspaper. “We have never worked together, so it’s definitely a learning experience, but that’s OK,” Gypsy said. “We’re both learning how to expand our patience, refining our collaborative superpower, because we’ve always been a team.”

They plan to have the newspaper available online sometime in February, at southwestnebraska.news.

Honoring the legacy of the paper is essential to them. “There used to be a lot of newspapers around here and now they’re all gone,” Gypsy said. “To have a good paper and a good product with people’s faces that we know and articles that are relevant to us, that motivates us. ”We’re shooting for the next 140 years of success.”

For the Emericks, this new chapter is only the beginning.

“We tell each other every day, this is the best decision we’ve ever made,” Gypsy said. “We’re here to stay. We’ve found our home.”

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