Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Each year, Missouri Press members volunteer their time and expertise in service to the Association’s leadership, helping to guide the trade group in representing the interests of more than 200 member publications.
Directors on the MPA Board are elected each year during the business meeting held as part of the Association’s annual convention and trade show. Nominations to serve on the board are accepted until July 1 and are then reviewed by a nominating committee for consideration by MPA’s voting members.
MPA’s newly elected directors this year are Secretary Allen Edmonds, publisher of the North Cass Herald in Belton; and National Newspaper Association Chair Dawn Suggs, digital director of the St. Louis American.
Allen Edmonds’ first foray into journalism at his high school newspaper was guided more by social influences than any true journalistic drive, but he said it wasn’t long after joining that he “caught the passion.”
“I had always done well and truly enjoyed creative writing, so that’s what my English teacher used to stoke my interest in the newspaper,” Edmonds told Missouri Press News. “I also began reading the Kansas City Times and Star both during the course of every day, nearly cover-to-cover.”
For Edmonds, devouring every word of Joe McGuff’s sports column in the evening Star was his daily highlight.
Mentally, the variety of journalism keeps Edmonds going, and more importantly, is central to his enjoyment of life and feeling of self-worth. As he puts it, “the ‘meat’ of our work is based on the events of the day. We end each day knowing that much of what we dealt with could not have been forecast when we began.”
He also believes greater value comes with printed products and that words, photos and graphics, when combined and printed on the page and printed, tell a story that is also a permanent record of history.
Getting people to see the value of the printed product is also one of the greatest challenges facing the industry now. He doesn’t discount the benefits of near-instant online news distribution that can also include video and sound, or that the internet has removed delays in communicating with the public on important, sometimes vital issues.
“But there are numerous advantages to a permanent, printed record,” Edmonds said, adding that younger generations will come to find they miss the experience that printed products represent.
“Our challenge is to sell the case for what we can provide as an additional source for news that [other media] cannot,” Edmonds said. For example, newspapers’ local coverage is an unmatched strength, but it requires audiences to understand why being informed is important.
Edmonds said his service on the MPA board stems from an interest in how the press association works with the state courts system. As a circuit court media representative, he has dealt with discussions related to cameras in the courtroom, but there are other issues he sees as a concern and requiring clearer directives from the Missouri Supreme Court.
“I've also seen many challenges the administration of our Case.net system has caused the media and public over the years,” Edmonds said. “Some have slowly been resolved, but many remain inconsistently administered and far less ‘open’ than had been envisioned by those promoting its use.”
Legal status of newspapers is also an area of concern for Edmonds, who sees legal and public notice advertising as not only a crucial public service to taxpayers but also critical to newspapers’ continued survival, including his own North Cass Herald.
Public notice advertising has saved the citizens of many communities their only means of contact with the government, schools and law enforcement agencies that have such direct effect on their lives. These agencies would all certainly fill the void with communications that serve only their own interests, Edmonds said, “But we all agree that's not the basis of an effective and healthy relationship.”
While his career has seen him tied to journalism, Edmonds said he did have a “brief flirtation with secondary education in college,” but quickly returned to his first passion of journalism. Perhaps it was always meant to be, since Edmonds considers his passion almost ancestral.
“I have no doubt that the ink running through my veins was passed down to me, skipping the two generations directly above me. My dad told me years ago he wasn't at all surprised that I broke the two-generation run of school administrators in my family, because he had always seen similarities between me and his grandfather, my great-grandfather,” Edmonds said.
That great-grandfather was a farmer by profession, not a journalist, but every evening he would sit down in the utility room with his pipe and the day’s copy of the Kansas City Star before dinner.
“We both loved agate type,” Edmonds said. “He read every word, committing the commodity prices to memory the way I did box scores. And though he was gone before my birth, I’ve always felt this was where I was led and it could have only come from one place.”
