It’s been an honor, but it’s time to go
Published 7:28 pm Sunday, July 27, 2025
- After 32 years as publisher of the Madras Pioneer, Tony Ahern is stepping down from the position. For the last 12 years, he's also been the publisher of the Central Oregonian newspaper in Prineville., a run which will also comes to an end. He began his career at the Central Oregonian as a sportswriter in 1986. He plans to continue to write sports for the Pioneer on a contract basis.
My first day of work as publisher of the Madras Pioneer was April Fools Day (of course) in 1993. I was living in Prineville, where I’d spent seven years working at the Central Oregonian. That first day, I came into town like I often did, first stopping to see my brother Mike at his store, the same store I grew up working in, to grab a cup of coffee before hitting my new office. That morning, my high school basketball coach, Joe Blincoe, was there. I asked Joe what he was up to and he said, in his slow Southern accent, “Just waiting for that first paper to come out.”
It made me laugh and it settled me down, reminded me that I was back home … as if Madras, where I lived the first 18 years of my life, had ever been anything but home.
But I was nervous, taking over a newspaper with many longtime employees. I was 30 going on 22, with a lot more energy than experience. Who the hell was I to get the corner office?
We got that first paper out later that week, and by my best estimate, we followed it up with 1,680 more editions, along with probably 250 to 350 magazines and special sections.
This week’s paper — 32-plus years after seeing my old coach in the store that morning — is my last as publisher of the Pioneer.
The Pioneer has been around since 1904, and I’ve got to ride in the captain’s seat for more than a quarter of its 121 years. I think that’s long enough. I always viewed newspapering as an art — probably because I’m a bit sloppy and don’t like rules — an art combining several things that I enjoy: business, history, graphic arts, promoting, packaging a strong publication, all held together by something that I love: writing. It’s time to give others their chance to unleash their art on the Pioneer.
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In recent years, as I’ve contemplated the time when I’d be done, I’d recall many of the big news events we’ve covered. So many celebrations, so many important community-changing issues, so many heartbreaking occurrences. But during these recent weeks, the stories and photos in our publications have receded in my mind while the people behind putting them there come to the forefront. I know it’s cliche, but it’s people, very important people to me, that I keep thinking about as I wind down — the people who were in the trenches with me, people I learned from, were inspired by, who didn’t bail on me when I made mistakes.
My first boss, Jim Smith, hired me in Prineville to be his sports editor when I’d just turned 23. I was fresh out of U of O with a Journalism degree, ready to be a sports writer, but home in Madras working at the store. Every day I’d check the Oregonian help-wanted ads hoping a newspaper job was posted. After a week or so, a sports job opened in Prineville, just 28 miles down the road. Fateful.
Working for Jim for seven years was like getting a master’s degree in newspapering. He gave me the opportunity to grow, to become a news editor, then managing editor. He was also key to me getting the opportunity to come back to Madras as publisher in 1993.
In my 32 years at the Pioneer, we’ve had just two office managers. First Bev Schonneker then Joey Lantz. They are very different from each other, but many descriptions apply to both: very hard working, dependable, loyal, warm-hearted but with a momma bear instinct a mile deep, and gate keepers like Chicago bouncers. Both were kind enough to make it part of their jobs to listen to me complain or blow off steam or repeat boring stories. Them doing their jobs so well was a large part of any success I or the papers have had. They were and are quiet superstars of the Pioneer.
I’ve worked with many fantastic reporters and editors over the years, but five stand out as my five first-ballot hall of famer: Susan Matheny, Holly M. Gill, Pat Kruis and two Central Oregonian stalwarts, Jason Chaney and Lon Austin. Since 2013, along with the Pioneer, I’ve also had a return engagement with the Central Oregonian as publisher.
Susan Matheny had been at the Pioneer since the mid-’80s, several years before I got there. From day one to when she retired in 2019, Susan could have taught classes in work ethic. I’ve never worked with anyone more dependable and consistently productive than Susan. I’m confident that no one has written more Pioneer copy than Susan did during her four-decade career, and she always brought heart and warmth to our community paper. She was old school hated change, but always mastered it.
Holly worked at the Pioneer in the late ’70s fresh out of college, then raised kids and did other things, but we drug her back early in the 2000s. Holly Gill was by far the best copy editor the Pioneer ever had, and an outstanding writer as well. I think the Pioneer was its strongest front to back when Holly was on board and editing. She famously had her own style of time management, but she kept me, Susan and the 107 or so sports editors we’ve had all sharper and more correct than we otherwise would have been.
Susan and Holly both retired in 2019. Coincidently, the newspaper business grew very tough about that time. The worldwide pandemic may have also had something to do with that. Downsizing, getting the paper out with staff working just three days a week — there was a lot of drudgery to dig through. But in November 2020, I lucked into hiring a new reporter, a Crooked River Ranch resident who used to be a TV journalist in Portland. In walked Pat Kruis and the sun came out again.
Pat was nearer to retirement than any of us, but she had a zeal for telling stories that was infectious and inspirational to me and the rest of the staff. The toughest hard news stories or the sweetest features, Pat was outstanding at both. She was fearless when it came to challenging powers that be. After about 30 years at the paper, I was admittedly a bit shredded from negative coverage of community leaders and otherwise decent people with neighbors and friends — Pat reminded me that it was our job to sometimes do so.
In 2013, new ownership added the Central Oregonian to my publisher duties. One of my first calls there was to make the mild-mannered reporter, Jason Chaney, the editor. He’s the male version of Susan: just leave him alone and great work gets done, without complaint. He’s excellent at hard news, but also outstanding at features, and his funny columns dominate at the annual journalism competitions. In this age of micro-staffs, he’s nearly a one-man newspaper in Prineville. His work has graced the Pioneer over recent years, especially those columns, and I hope his imprint on the paper grows after I leave.
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Lon Austin was the sports editor at the Central Oregonian when I rejoined the CO team. Unlike Jason, who never complained, Lon had a comment or suggestion at just about every turn. Yet his beloved Crook County High School sports got outstanding coverage every week. And those photos. Lon invested his own money to get great equipment, and it showed out on the page every week. I always looked forward to when Crook County played Madras so the Pioneer could get those extra nice shots too. In the recent Northwest region newspaper awards, Lon won first place for best sports photo, and second place, and he won another first place for photo essay with the Pioneer’s Kiva Hanson for their photo spread on the Airshow of the Cascades.
The last time I talked to Lon was this past March. He asked if I wanted him to cover the girls softball tournament in Madras, which Crook County was also playing in, on Monday or Tuesday. I told him Tuesday was fine. So he and his wife went shopping for landscaping materials on Monday, and he died of a sudden, massive heart attack in the Home Depot parking lot. I miss Lon and wish I could hear a just a few more of his contrarian pontifications … but mostly when I think of Lon I hear him telling me to get out from behind the desk and do something else.
My appreciation for all five of those people is near boundless. If I had a dollar for each time I received a compliment for the work that they did … well, I may have been able to head out the door even earlier.
Any successful community newspaper needs a good advertising salesperson. Maybe the best hire I ever made at any time was bringing on Jenniffer Grant to sell ads back in 2016. In her life and on the job, she’s an inspiration. Longtime Ad Manager Joy DeHaan was another great hire (stole her from my brother’s store) and always brought class and kindness to work with her. One of my earliest hires, graphic designer Becky Stever, had to put up with my countless mind-changes and revisions and only cussed me out a couple times. One of my last hires, reporter Kiva Hanson, reminds me that they still making journalists the right way at U of O. She has that same fearlessness that the best carry. I’m not sure I ever met anyone who cared more about their newspaper than Angie Bernard, our general manager in Prineville and resident circulation savant, and her dedication to it has always been inspiring. Brent Shield, the composition chief and general tech wizard in Prineville, was another one of those quiet lifesavers to work with — and kept me relegated to being the second biggest Duck fan on staff.
The newspaper industry has lost 75% of its jobs since 2000 or so. The ones that remain are pretty badass.
I’m only 62, haven’t won the lottery, so I’ll still continue to work. I’m going to try and do a few things five days a week instead of one thing seven days a week. And I’m also not going to disappear from the Pioneer completely. Our ownership is open to me continuing to write sports for the paper as a contract writer. So I hope to still be muddying up the pages some.
I thank all my seven siblings for being so supportive of me and the Pioneer. My wife Shannan — who sold ads for the paper back in the mid-’90s and was vital in improving our advertising reputation — helped my career and the Pioneer in a million quiet ways, always loyal and ready to fight any detractors (it’s that Prineville upbringing). A big thanks also to my brothers Mike and Dan for always being supportive and never staying mad at what was and what wasn’t reported in the Pioneer, even when they had every right to. Both were short-changed on credit for their impact and contribution to the community by their local paper because of the person who operated it.
To everyone who ever took a moment to make a nice comment to me, I very much appreciate it, and always have. It’s been an honor.