Our History


The first edition of The New Era newspaper was published by Dr. G.H. Crusen on Sept. 27, 1929. It was Sweet Home’s second paper, following the Intermountain Tribune, which had been published from 1912 to 1914. Dr. Crusen decided Sweet Home needed a newspaper and he thought there was sufficient support in the community to keep one operating. He was right, though things were tight at times during the 80-plus years the newspaper has served Sweet Home.

Over the years, The New Era has had seven different owners and publishers. Some of those have published the paper for extended periods of time. Arthur E. Macoubrie and William L. Dudley ran the paper for the longest period of time, from 1946 to 1972, when it was taken over by Dave Cooper. Dave Cooper published the paper from 1972 to 1985 with his first wife, Bridgett, and after he remarried, his wife Sonia.

Alex and Debbie Paul put the newspaper out for 20 years, from 1985 to 2005, before current publishers Scott and Miriam Swanson purchased The New Era and assumed the publisher’s duties. Under the Pauls, the newspaper launched the www.sweethomenews.com Web site and converted many of its operations to desktop computers.

Today, instead of the hot lead used by Dr. Crusen and other early publishers, the newspaper is printed using a streamlined digital process that enables us to do things the publishers of years past would never have dreamed of.

We thank Sweet Home for the support it has shown its newspaper over the years and we look forward to the chance to serve our readers, not only on paper but on the Web, in the years to come.