You likely noticed that the front of today’s edition of the Sedona Red Rock News has a special masthead. This is the original hand-drawn masthead that appeared on our first edition, which was printed some 60 years ago.
The very first edition of the Red Rock News hit the streets of Sedona on Oct. 3, 1963.
In it, founder Robert S. Larson described his vision for the new publication in words that still ring more than a true half a century later: “We firmly believe with the help and the patience of the good people of Sedona [many of whom we already know], we can give a good, newsy newspaper,” he wrote. “This is just the first issue and as the other issues roll off the presses each week we know that many improvements will be made. We will, as time goes on, give a wide coverage of local news along with many features.”
For the last 60 years, the Red Rock News, then the renamed Sedona Red Rock News, has served the people of Sedona and the surrounding areas as the trusted source to keep residents connected to the goings-on in their community.
That was the goal beginning with the first edition and remains the same today.
While we temporarily changed the masthead, the NEWS will not change any of our philosophy to provide complete local coverage for the residents of Sedona and the Verde Valley, through both the NEWS and our sister papers, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
I was first hired by Larson Newspapers in 2004 as a copy editor. After a few months, given my background in performance poetry and connection to the city’s art scene, then-Managing Editor Ryan Van Benthuysen let me write a weekly column, Sedona Underground, highlighting new artists Sedona residents might not know but whose music, poetry, literature or art they could experience.
I continued working under subsequent managing editors John Walsh, Greg Ruland and Trista Steers, later Trista MacVittie, eventually as her assistant managing editor.
I learned skills from each and the whole staff had robust conversations about media law, ethics, what to cover and how to cover it best for our readers.
I began to write more than just arts features, covering whatever the other reporters didn’t, from crime and breaking news to in-depth investigative pieces that required more time and documentation than a regular story.
After MacVittie left the paper in May 2013, publisher Bob Larson promoted me to news editor, then managing editor — kind of against my will — but he had more confidence in me than I did. But I had worked under good editors, alongside talented journalists and I had Bob Larson and his son and General Manager Kyle Larson to back me up if we investigated powerful organizations or people who didn’t want journalists mucking about.
A few years into the job, Loretta Larson called me about an editorial, asking where in Montana my family was from, which turned out to be, in Montana terms, relatively near where Robert S. Larson was born and raised.
She concluded by saying I was doing better than she thought I would, which was the highest praise if you knew Loretta.
What Robert S. and Loretta Larson started 60 years ago has been carried on by their children Bob, Tommy, Jerry and Liz and now their grandson Kyle, and will remain a legacy to continue now and into the future.
As the newspaper of record in the city of Sedona, the NEWS takes its responsibilities very seriously. We have a clear understanding of our obligation to provide readers with the most accurate, objective, up-to-date community news and to support people and organizations that work to make Sedona a better place to live.
Over my 19 years here, we have held to the legacy of reporting the news that affects you: Discussions and decisions by local elected bodies, actions by municipal and county staff, the celebrations and achievements of our children and youth, the launch of new businesses, the operations and fundraising efforts of nonprofits and their work in the community, weddings, marriages, graduations, births of children, birthdays of seniors nearing 100 years, profiles of artists, leaders, candidates, executive directors, nonprofit staff members, workers, business owners, people in need and those helping others. We report on crimes large and small, tragedies natural, personal and professional, publish opinions from you and others and we honor our dead with obituaries so readers who did not know their neighbors in life might know them after death.
We are a snapshot in time of life in our shared community, chronicling what it means to be a Sedonan. We cover the news because you ask us to and because you trust us to be honest, fair, accurate, clear and fearless.
The ownership and entire staff of the Sedona Red Rock News would like to again thank the residents of the Sedona area for allowing us to serve you for the past 60 years.
Christopher Fox Graham
Larson Newspapers
Our first edition, published Thursday, Oct. 3, 1963:
