As the Trib celebrates its birthday, we’re moving to a new website

It was in Portland, Ore., in 1892 when two young brothers from Texas, determined to forge their way in the newspaper business somewhere in the Northwest, ambled into a shop that sold printing press equipment.

Once Eugene L. Alford and Albert H. Alford had bought their press, they turned to the salesman who had helped them and asked, “Now where would you go to start this newspaper?”

The salesman — who was either impressed by the boldness or amused by the naiveté of the Texans — gave them two suggestions: Astoria, Ore., or Lewiston, Idaho. The salesman told them about the positive aspects of both communities, which illustrated that both had the potential for growth.

It’s not known what rationale the Alford brothers used to make their choice, but whatever it came down to ... well, you wouldn’t be reading these words now if they had settled on Astoria.

Eugene, Albert and their printing press traveled to Lewiston via riverboat, landing at what is today Kiwanis Park late in the summer of 1892. After a few weeks of arrangements, the Alford brothers’ weekly Lewiston Tribune made its debut on Sept. 29.

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We don’t know why the Alford brothers chose Lewiston as their destination. And I doubt they could have imagined that 132 years later, their grandson and grand-nephew, A.L. “Butch” Alford Jr., would be telling the tale of the newspaper’s founding on a technology that would have seemed like magic to them.

But that was the case last week, when Tribune Online Editor Trevan Pixley and I interviewed Butch about the Tribune’s history on our second of what we hope is a weekly podcast. You can listen to our chat by scanning the QR code that accompanies this story, or by going to this link: bit.ly/4elA4c3.

And on Monday, you can expect a whole new look when you go to lmtribune.com. This won’t be just a rejiggering of our website’s framework; we are switching to a new content management system developed by Rust Communications, a scrappy, family-owned, Missouri-based newspaper company that seems to be a kindred spirit with our Tribune Publishing Co.

The new website is cleaner, loads faster and is easier to read. And most intriguing of all: It will feature a virtual assistant that readers can ask questions of and, using our archives and its artificial intelligence, the virtual assistant will provide an answer.

Sounds exciting, right?

Well, one note of caution: Website changes like the one we have planned Monday are notoriously challenging. There will almost certainly be hiccups with our new site. Please have patience with this transition. It has the potential to be a much-improved experience over our current online offering, but we do have tweaks to make.

To get started, subscribers will have to authenticate their account on the new site. We will email a note to our readers today with details on how to log on to the new site, and anyone still having trouble can call our circulation office at (208) 746-8742 after 8 a.m. Monday.

This transition may also affect readers who have taken advantage of a username and password they’ve “borrowed” from a family member, friend or place of business. If you are in that camp, we would appreciate keeping you on our site, but as a paying subscriber, which will fund our efforts to continue telling the story of life in north central Idaho and southeastern Washington, like we’ve been doing for the past 132 years.

I think you’ll enjoy our podcast with Butch, not just because it’s fascinating local history, but because Butch is a magnificent storyteller.

At the end of our chat, I asked Butch if the work of newspapering has changed in his 63 years of active participation. He answered that some of the characteristics are different, but the Trib’s mission is the same: provide an accurate, fair news report of the day; offer a “yeasty” opinion page; and turn a profit so we can pay our bills and pay our staff.

And I’m betting Eugene and Albert would approve of that.

Baney is the interim managing editor of the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. He can be reached at mbaney@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251.