LINCOLN- Rod Worrell calls it a “Christmas miracle,” but just hours before he was ready to print the final edition of the Ainsworth Star-Journal on Dec. 25, a new owner emerged. Now both the Star-Journal and the Valentine Midland News, two weekly papers that Worrell and his wife Kathy had owned for more than 40 years, will not close. Potential owners in Ainsworth, he said, were having trouble finding someone to staff the paper — the workforce is a major issue in many sectors across Nebraska, including in Ainsworth, a ranching community 140 miles west of Norfolk.

Graig Kinzie, the owner of the local radio station in Ainsworth, said he’d been trying to put together a group to buy the paper for two to three months, but each group couldn’t come up with someone to run the operation. Then the owners of an Ainsworth car dealership, Clint and Katie Painter stepped forward to tell Kinzie their daughter, Erin, wanted to move back to her hometown and was willing to manage the paper.

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