The former home of the Pendleton Record sits unused on Southeast Court Avenue in Pendleton. The small office housed the Pendleton Record for most of Marguerite Maznaritz’s time as the paper’s publisher.

PENDLETON — When the Pendleton Record stopped publishing earlier this year, the newspaper’s readers, and former owners Marguerite Maznaritz and Eli Stephens, were left confused over the abrupt end.

When Stephens was ready to slow down and pass on the paper at the end of 2019, he turned to his news editor, Victoria Horne, to carry the torch. Horne, who had been listed as the paper’s editor since August 2018, announced her purchase of the paper in January.

“I have been under the tutelage of Marguerite since I started in June 2018,” she wrote. “She has taught me to love and appreciate even the most tedious of tasks involved with running and editing a county newspaper.”

Horne went on to discuss her love for writing and how her experience as a lifelong Pendletonian impacts her knowledge of Umatilla County and the surrounding area.

“I am hopeful that with my fresh outlook I can continue to bring you all a paper you can be proud of,” she wrote. “Eli and Marguerite will be right behind me every step of the way.”

But in March 2020, the paper just stopped coming, leaving Maznaritz, Stephens and subscribers wondering what happened. Subscribers took to Facebook to voice their concerns, and the website and phone number for the business no longer exist.

“I’ve had numerous people contacting me and really missing the paper,” he said. “We specialized in community news and people really miss that.”

Horne could not be reached for additional comment after multiple attempts to contact her over the past several weeks.

In the early days of Horne’s ownership, Maznaritz and Stephens continued to contribute to the paper, with Stephens writing stories and Maznaritz researching county records. But Mazanritz began to become frustrated with the number of changes to the paper.

“She kept changing things she shouldn’t have,” said Maznaritz.

Stephens said he has since lost touch with Horne and is not sure why exactly the paper stopped coming, but said, if given the opportunity, he would love to be involved with the paper if it ever takes off again.

While the future of the paper is still unknown, Maznaritz and others are left wondering what happened to the paper that her family was ingrained in for more than half a century.

“It kinda broke my heart to see it go,” said Maznaritz. “But mismanagement, people who didn’t know what they’re doing — that’s life.”

A history in the business

Maznaritz’s parents owned the Wallula Gateway and her uncle, Clifford Johnson, ran the newspaper in Touchet, Washington, before moving to Helix to run the Helix Viewpoint.

In the mid 1930s, fresh out of the Great Depression, Clifford Johnson joined with J.M. Biggs to combine the Helix Viewpoint with a trio of papers from Pendleton, Athena and Weston to form the Umatilla County Recorder — the precursor to the Pendleton Record. According to the Pendleton Record, the newspaper was then purchased by Marian Makinson and Florence Crider in September 1951.

On Thursday, Feb. 4, 1971, the Pendleton Record announced that James G. Westover and Marguerite M. Westover — now Marguerite Maznaritz — had purchased the Pendleton Record from Crider and Makinson, marking a return of the paper to Marguerite’s family.

“They desperately needed to get it gone, they had had it for 25 years,” said Maznaritz. “Their mates had all passed away and those two little ladies had been trying to run the place for a couple of years.”

For the next five decades, Maznaritz continued to publish the weekly paper with a carefully compiled list of public records, such as marriages, property sales, deaths and mortgages.

Maznaritz inspiration to buy the newspaper was routed in a childhood dream to not be a failure. She said she never really knew what she wanted to do with her life, only that she didn’t want to fail.

“When I was a young kid clear down in grade school and someone asked me what I wanted to do, my answer was always anything but being a failure,” she said. “I felt like I made a success after 50 years, I never figured I needed to get rich, on anything.”

Maznaritz said that her favorite part of owning the paper was getting to know the community and monitor the public records.

“What I liked most about the paper was keeping up on everybody’s name and running the public record and when any properties changed hands,” said Maznaritz. “I stopped quite a few different swindles.”

Maznaritz’s love for the public record was clear; she said she would spend several hours a week at the county courthouse combing through records for the weekly paper. Each week the four-page paper featured between a half a page and a page of public records.

“It was really interesting,” she said. “In fact, I really miss going to the courthouse.”

Maznaritz had always dreamed of passing the paper along to her children to run, however, despite help from her son, Sam Westover, there was just not enough interest from her family to keep the paper.

“It was supposed to be a heritage that I was passing,” she said. “Nobody wanted it.”

Enter Stephens, a Pendleton businessman.

Getting a new look

Stephens had long dreamed of owning a newspaper and had come close to purchasing one on at least one occasion throughout his years of interest. On her 86th birthday, Stephens took Maznaritz out for lunch and came away from it having purchased the paper, the pair said.

In June 2018, Stephens officially took the reins of the more than century-old paper and went to work immediately. Gone were the days of covering house fires and crime and in came feel-good stories about people and events in the community.

“When I bought the paper we made a conscious effort to focus on community events,” he said. “Everything that I did, except for letters to the editor of course, was trying not to be political.”

Stephens said he found success with his new model and said the number of subscribers grew week after week for his tenure at the paper.

“We had new subscribers every week for the 1½ years that I owned it,” he said.

Within the months after taking ownership, the paper changed its design from a text-heavy legal paper to one that included photographs and switched from black and white to color a few months after that.

“It looked good,” said Mazanritz. “But it cost him an awful lot of money.”

But for Stephens the paper was about more than just the financial side, although he took steps to modernize the accounting system and seek out advertisers, the “good news” paper was a childhood dream of his.

“It was the funnest job I ever had, far from the easiest, but it was definitely the funnest job I ever had,” he said.