Press vs S-R: War of the words

It’s hard to believe now, almost four years after The Spokesman-Review shut its North Idaho office, but Coeur d’Alene was once ground zero for the Great North Idaho Newspaper War.

For decades, beginning in the early 1980s, Duane Hagadone’s Coeur d’Alene Press and Bill and Stacey Cowles’ Spokesman-Review were fierce competitors.

The SR, my old fish wrapper, invaded with a full bureau staff and designs on increased ad revenue and circulation. The SR staff was peopled with newspaper veterans, including two former Hagadone managing editors: Doug Clark (Press) and me (Daily Inter Lake of Kalispell, Mont).

The two staffs weren’t friendly. We at the SR tried to embarrass our Press counterparts each day by scooping them. And Press reporters defended their home turf by returning the favor. Politicians caught in the crossfire ducked and ran.

Duane Hagadone wasn’t fond of the “out-of-town” newspaper. At times, his contempt for the Cowles bunch hampered our coverage. Duane, of course, was a newsmaker as well as a competitor.

Julie Titone, a former chief of the SR’s Coeur d’Alene bureau, recalls “the difficulty of getting information about (Duane’s) enterprises and inevitable controversies over his developments.”

Duane did, however, invite Julie and her reporter David Bond, who had also worked for the Press, to tour the Coeur d’Alene Resort before it was open for public view on May 5, 1986.

What happened next was vintage Duane Hagadone.

“I was wearing a trench coat, oblivious to the fact that its belt was trailing me, Columbo-like,” Julie recollects. “The developer, known for his attention to detail, quietly picked up the end of the belt and handed it to me.”

Duane Hagadone, said Julie, will be recalled as a man who helped reshape North Idaho into a tourist destination and engendered much gratitude.

But his small personal touches may be the things that are remembered best.

First impression

I didn’t make a good first impression on Duane. It was 1978, and I was the 28-year-old managing editor of his Kalispell newspaper. He would have been in his mid-40s. The late publisher C. Patrick King had invited Daily Inter Lake department heads and their spouses to his house to hobnob with Duane. I was in the kitchen leaning against the stove when Duane approached. We talked. I asked what his plans were for his collection of newspapers that stretched at the time from Hawaii to Elizabeth, N.J. He didn’t hesitate. “I’m going to make my newspapers into the best damn chain in the United States,” he said. Then, he looked at me strangely. “You might want to move,” he said. Rather than ask why, I did. I had accidentally turned a knob on the stove. And was seconds away from bursting into flames.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Behold in Boise/the Legislature,/an odd creation/of Mother Nature,/waving its arms/and flapping its jaws,/it mumbles and rants/and passes strange laws – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Peculiar Life Form").

• Claire Weller of Coeur d’Alene, who is a very nice person, was attracted to a bumpersnicker that seems countercultural in these angry times: “You are now in Idaho – be nice.” And if you can’t be nice? Get outtahere! (That’s Huckleberries speaking, not Claire.)

• Has it really been a year since I began writing Huckleberries for the Coeur d'Alene Press? Time flies when you're having fun. And I've been having fun here, despite COVID.

• You know the sun, moon and stars aren’t lined up correctly when you read this Facebook SOS from top-notch Nadine’s Mexican Restaurant in Rathdrum: “We need workers! If we don’t find additional team members, we will be forced to reduce our hours of operation. No one wants that.” Team Nadz offers this P.S.: “We will train.” You taco lovers out there have been warned.

• Twenty-five years ago, in April 1996, North Idaho was stunned by the unexpected death of nature artist Steve Lyman, 38, of Sandpoint, in a climbing accident at Yosemite National Park, California. A Press mini-editorial summed up our collective sorrow: “His death made national headlines because Lyman painted himself into the hearts of all America.”

Parting Shot

Jeanette Haines of Samuel, Idaho (12 miles north of Sandpoint). Celebrated her 51st birthday on Thursday, April 22. She was born on Earth Day. Not just any Earth Day. But THE Earth Day, April 22, 1970. So you’d think that Jeanette would be an Enviro with a capital E. But that’s not so, according to her mother, Cis Gors of Kootenai. Jeanette doesn’t litter. And she does recycle some stuff. But, overall, she’s like most of us, doing her part for Ma Nature but not over the top. However, Jeanette does enjoy sharing a birthday with Earth Day. She likes to tell others, “I’m as old as dirt.” But that doesn’t seem so when you’re one of us Seasoned Citizens who looks at life from the wrong side of 70.

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You can contact D.F. “Dave” Oliveria at dfo@cdapress.com.