Our History: The Vision of Jim Waldron
Jim Waldron knew he wanted to be a newspaper publisher after the field trip his second grade class from McAlpin School took to the Suwannee Democrat, a
weekly newspaper in Live Oak, Florida. He was awed by the linotype machines, the presses and was amazed by the
finished product.
Jim began his journey into journalism at Central Florida Junior College in Ocala, in 1963 and continued on to the University of Florida. From there he landed a job at the Taco Times in Perry, Florida. After working at that newspaper for a while he decided he knew all there was to know about running a newspaper and started his own The Lake City Courier. Well, he made it six weeks before it folded.
The journey continued to the Winter Haven News Chief in Winter Haven, Florida. There he was the sports editor. This is where he met his wife Sandy. She had been hired by the News Chief to learn to operate the most modern, new fangled machine called a Justo-writer. This new machine would take the place of the old linotype machines and was turning hot lead composing into something called cold type, offset printing. It wasn’t long before Jim was hired by the Gannett Corporation to be the Prep Editor for its new daily newspaper, “Today” in Cocoa. The space age had hit Bevard County hard and heavy. The whole place was booming.
Jim and Sandy were married and moved to Cocoa. He liked covering sports but still had the longing to publish a weekly newspaper. He took out an ad in Editor and Publisher trade
magazine stating, “I have no money, but would like to own a weekly newspaper”. a gentelman by the name of Paul Paddock answered the ad. He also wanted to own a weekly newspaper and he had money, but no knowledge. Mr. Paddock, purchased the Mount Dora Topic, which at that time, 1968, was owned by about 12 local businessmen who had purchased the newspaper to keep it from going out of business.
After about a year, Mr. Paddock decided he didn’t want to be the owner of a newspaper, so in 1969, he sold the paper to Jim and Sandy. This is the same year, they decided to start the Voice of South Marion. Jim was familiar with the South Marion area and always thought it would be a good place to start a newspaper. They made a couple of trips to Belleview and went store to store talking to the owners and managers about the need for a local hometown newspaper. The response was some what encouraging. So in October, 1969, with a total of investment of $300, their life savings, the The Voice of South Marion was born. The paper grew over the years and Jim fulfilled his dream of publishing his own weekly newspaper. His editorial goal was to provide a voice for the community events and concerns and to provide an affordable avenue for local independent businesses to advertise.
He did fulfill his dream of publishing a local community newspaper for 34 years and 43 weeks, and he loved every minute of it. The Voice has continued to follow his goal, being the biggest supporter of community events and business under the direction of Sandy Waldron.
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