Publisher

Managed Service

Government & Politics

The Nevada County Scooper was founded on June 12th, 1914 by Fred Bloomfield III, Esq. and his wife Vinalla A. Bloomfield. Throughout its 92 year history the Scooper, as it is affectionately called by locals, has striven to provide its citizens with the most up to date and hard-hitting journalism ever witnessed by mankind. As the recipient of many awards, the Scooper recently ran out of wall space in its Penn Valley office after receiving a Gold Record from long time supporter and Nevada County Scooper reader, fan and supporter Alice Cooper. Early History In its early days the Nevada County Scooper was published from downtown Grass Valley and was the chief competitor to another, to be unnamed, local newspaper. During this time, the Scooper did not own a printing press, nor did they have the courage to borrow one. And frankly, they didn’t have the funds either. So the Scooper relied solely on shouting at people on the street to circulate the news. Later in the 1930s, the Scooper expanded its shouting service to Nevada City, often paying vagrants to assault citizens with the news. Mr. Bloomfield was a firm believer in enlightened self-interest and believed that he was serving both the community and the paper’s interests. Also, he really liked to yell. Middle History In 1949, after 17 long years of World War II, the Scooper finally purchased a printing press. However, due to the untimely death of Mr. Bloomfield’s wife in a bizarre gardening accident, he decided to sell his holdings in the newspaper to the Hearst Corporation for an undisclosed sum. The monies from this transaction were used for various failed housing developments around Nevada County including the infamous “retirement homes over Wolf Creek” project. The few homes that were built, fell into the creek after the record snow melt of 1951. Following the abrupt departure of Scooper Publisher Charles Foster Kane in 1952, “the Great Savior” who is also known as David Covino took the Scooper’s helm and turned the struggling paper around into a profitable enterprise. Mr. Covino stayed in charge until 1989 when a trust fund alcoholic named Harold F. Buck took over and nearly destroyed the Scooper with reckless spending, all-night parties and lots of company-purchased booze. He managed to stay the publisher until 2011 when he was found blacked-out at Greenhorn Creek. Fresh History After over 94 years in the news business, the holding company sold the Scooper and its assets to former Fresno State math genius Randall “Fink” Finkelstein. Fink immediately set out to build a world-class local newspaper, as he put it, “for the rest of us in Nevada County…and maybe Sierra County if I can ever get up there.” His goal of bringing worldly worldliness and his insightful blog commentary to Nevada County is first and foremost. Unless there’s money to be made in Sierra City. Then he will include them as well. Louis “Lou” LaPlante brings Louisiana Swamp Smarts to the Scooper’s Management team. His direct and strict style provides editorial leadership in uncertain times. Lou provides editorial veto power and is a guiding force in the Scooper’s success. He was instrumental in assembling the modern Scooper team and keeping us from spending all the profits on booze. The Future Fink hopes one day to put everyone in a flying car. Louis “Lou” LaPlante, the Scooper’s editor at large and President, will retire to Cedar Ridge once he gets his paperwork in order.