The Reporter-News often crusaded for what it believed was right, including the construction of water supplies, the landings of Camp Barkeley and Dyess Air Force Base, the racial balancing of local schools and many bond issues. Perhaps the power of the press was best reflected in 1968 when a financial crisis had the West Texas Rehabilitation Center, one of publisher Stormy Shelton's pet causes, teetering on the brink of extinction. Current Publisher Frank Puckett said that while the mission remains the same, the newspaper game has changed vastly. Computers have replaced hot metal type. Most mechanical applications are fully automated.
Typewriters are gone and cameras that require film are quickly following.
Information is now beamed to Abilene from satellites and the Internet. In the future, we will see even more changes in the processes and form of the newspaper,'' Puckett promised. The sentiment echoed the forecast of Puckett's predecessor, Stormy Shelton, who led the paper until his death in 1997. Shelton oversaw the most sweeping changes in the newspaper's production, technology and content during his 62-year career. But the purpose of the Reporter-News will always be the same regardless of how this information is distributed, and that is to do our best to keep the people properly informed of the events and forces that affect their lives.