| "Covers Harney County like the Sagebrush." | |
 A front page from 2015 | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | NBG Media |
| Founder(s) | David Louis Grace, Nellie R. Grace[1] |
| Editor | Nolan Graham |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Headquarters | 355 N Broadway Ave, Burns, OR |
| City | Burns, Oregon |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 2,941[2] |
| Website | btimesherald |
TheBurns Times-Herald is aweekly newspaper serving the city ofBurns, Oregon, and the surroundingHarney County area.[3][4] The paper's motto is "Covers Harney County like the Sagebrush".[5]
Julian Byrd managed the paper for 40 years, and was considered instrumental in bringing the telephone, electricity, and movies to the rural city, as well as advocating for railroad lines. The newspaper changed ownership many times from 1930 to 2006, when the paper's journalists bought it, in the state's first staff buyout.[6]
About six newspapers were consolidated over several decades to result in theBurns Times-Herald.[6] The first paper published in Burns, Oregon was theHarney Valley Item. Horace A. Dillard first published theItem in July 1885 as a four-page, six column patent-out paper printed by Washington hand press. After two years he sold it to J. M. Vaughn.[7] It was later absorbed into what would become theTimes-Herald.[4]
The second paper started in Burns was theEast Oregon Herald, founded by David Louis Grace and Nellie R. Grace in November 1887. A century later, the paper would outlive or consolidated with 34 papers to become the only title published in Harney County. Julian Byrd joined the Graces as an apprentice.[8] At the time he was 15 and his brother Charles A. Byrd, 21, was already working for the Graces as a compositor. Julian Byrd became theprinter's devil in December 1889, and his father W. C. Byrd bought theHerald around 1890.[9] That same year Charles Byrd went on to buy theItem and published it for three years.[10] Julian Byrd went on to buy theHarney Times and merged it with theHerald to form theBurnsTimes-Herald. He also later purchased and absorbed theBurns Tribune into his paper.[9]
After her husband died, Nellie R. Grace started another newspaper called theHarney CountyNews in January 1893.[11] She sold the paper six years later.[9] By 1926, theNews was owned by Douglas Mullarky.[12] In 1930, Julian Byrd merged hisBurnsTimes-Herald with rival Douglas Mullarky'sBurns News. The consolidated paper kept theTimes-Herald name, with staff working out of theNews' office.[13] TheTimes-Herald became a daily newspaper in 1933,[14] but reverted back to a weekly in 1939.[15] The two men ran the paper together for decades until Mullarky was killed in 1957, the victim of ahit and run at age 59.[16] His widow and Byrd, who has been bedfast at the hospital for years, sold the paper to a new cooperation formed by two local business owners.[17] Byrd died about two years later.[18]
Dwight and Ethel Hinshaw published the paper for about 15 years from 1960 until retiring in the mid-1970s.[19] In 1976, theBurns Times-Herald was purchased byWestern Communications.[8] The paper was sold to out-of-state owners in November 2006, who then announced job cuts. In response, five employees, with a $35,000 grant from the Southeast Regional Alliance, formed a partnership called Survival Media and purchased theTimes-Herald.[20]
The county has only one movie house, in Burns; only two physicians, both in Burns; only two television sets outside of Burns and one weekly newspaper, The "Burns Times Herald".