CAMBRIDGE -- There are a lot of small towns all around Idaho, but there are not many with a population of less than 600 that still support a weekly newspaper.

The Upper Country News-Reporter is not the oldest newspaper in the state but it has been continually published since the state of Idaho was still a territory.

Having been family owned for three-fourths of a century, the paper is still a gem of the Salubria Valley.

About a year before Idaho became a state and about the same time the Wall Street Journal published its first issue, the Upper Country News-Reporter began keeping tabs on its residents.

In 1889, the paper, and the town, were located in Salubria, about a mile southeast of where Cambridge is now.

When the town moved, so did the paper, occupying the same building at the end of Superior Street since 1912.

It has changed names several times. From the Salubria Citizen to the Idaho Citizen to just being known as the news.

And for the past 74 years it has been family owned and operated.

Stu Dopf bought it in 1937. Now, his son Norman is the proprietor of the paper, which still publishes in the shadows of the past.

Distributing to 600 subscribers and sent to all corners of the country, the paper hopes to satisfy its readers interest in local news.

People from out of town read the local gossip columns and see who's married to whom and who's got kids that are growing up and you don't get that in the big city, said Bonnie Evans, the Upper Country News-Reporter.

But reduced readership and the economy has taken its toll on the paper.

It still pays its bills, I'll keep going as long as i can, said Norman.

He worries it could be tough to keep printing a paper in a wireless world.

There are just not that many people interested in the paper anymore, Norman said.

The paper publishes every Thursday. This Thursday, they will print the first edition of their 123rd year.

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