Community news.

Community and journalism were already functioning hand-in-hand by the time Shawnee officially became a town in 1895.

The history between newspapers and local residents remains inseparable to this day – one forges a path through life and the other makes sure it is remembered.

What has now been an eight-decades-long operation under the banner of The Shawnee News-Star, at its roots, it began in the mid-1890s when early settlers chose to plant themselves in wild country even before statehood.

Back then the publication seemed to change names and hands nearly every other day. To notate the shift there were countless variations of news titles, employing all the general reporting terms at one time or another — like News, Herald, Star, Daily, Weekly, Morning, Evening – attached to Shawnee, of course. For example, The Shawnee News-Star, which emerged March 2, 1943, was a mix of its two preceding publications — Shawnee Morning News and Shawnee Evening Star.

Shawnee’s local paper spans publication stints as short as three weeks (Shawnee News, daily, in 1898), but kept plugging away. As The Shawnee News-Star, the paper can now boast its current run at 81 years and counting. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, the timeline looks a little something like this, with some overlapping at times, due to the time or nature of the publication:

• Shawnee Morning News – July 15, 1919, to Feb. 28, 1943; preceding was Shawnee News Herald (the 1919 operation)
• Shawnee Evening Star – May 1, 1930, to Feb. 26, 1943
• Shawnee News Herald – June 2, 1919, to July 13, 1919; preceding was Shawnee Daily News Herald
• Shawnee Daily News Herald – Oct. 1, 1912, to June 1, 1919; preceding was Shawnee News Herald (the 1911 operation)
• Shawnee News Herald – Dec. 1, 1911, to March 9, 1912; preceding was Shawnee Daily Herald; Shawnee News (the 1903 operation)
• Shawnee Daily Herald – Sept. 7, 1906, to Nov. 22, 1911; preceding was Shawnee Herald (1902) (1901)
• Shawnee News – May 7, 1903, to May 28, 1903 (weekly); related – Shawnee News (1903) daily
• Shawnee Herald — May 17, 1901, to Dec. 26, 1907 (weekly); May 19, 1902, to Sept. 6, 1906 (daily); also published as Herald Democrat, Shawnee Weekly Herald
• Shawnee News – May 1, 1903, to Nov. 29, 1911 (daily); NOTE: published as Evening News May 1 through 30, 1903; Shawnee News Dispatch June 22 through July 29, 1905
• Shawnee Weekly Herald – June 11, 1925, to Oct. 24, 1929; preceding was Weekly Herald
• Weekly Herald – Nov. 18, 1920, to June 4, 1925; preceding was Semi-Weekly Herald;
• Semi-Weekly Herald – June 17, 1919, to Nov. 11, 1920; preceding was Shawnee Weekly Herald (1919)
• Shawnee Weekly Herald – Feb. 14, 1919, to June 13, 1919; preceding was Pottawatomie County Transcript
• Pottawatomie County Transcript – Sept. 17, 1915, to Jan. 31, 1919; preceding was Shawnee Transcript
• Shawnee Transcript – May 24, 1912, to Sept. 10, 1915; preceding was Shawnee Dispatch
• Shawnee Dispatch – Feb. 15, 1912, to March 14, 1912; succeeding was Shawnee Transcript
• Shawnee Evening News – March 13, 1902, to sometime in 1911

BEFORE 1900

• Shawnee Daily News – March 25, 1898, to May 15, 1898; Weekly News (1898) related; preceding was Shawnee News (1898)
• Weekly News – March 5, 1898, to May 7, 1898 (weekly); related Shawnee Daily News; preceding was Shawnee News (1896)
• Shawnee News – Feb. 2, 1898, to March 24, 1898 (daily); related Weekly News (1895);
• Shawnee News – Jan. 11, 1896, to Feb. 26, 1898 (weekly); preceding was Weekly News (1895); related Shawnee News (1898), Shawnee Daily News
• Weekly News – April 6, 1895, to Jan. 4, 1896