Oregon Observer

The Oregon Observer, established in 1880, serves "The Horse Capital of Wisconsin" - Oregon (a village with a population in excess of 6,000) - and the nearby rural community of Brooklyn. Founded in 1841 as a transportation cross roads, Oregon quickly became a rail and agricultural center. The village was the first in the nation to erect a World War I monument. Published each Thursday, the Oregon Observer is a subscription paper that is delivered via the U.S. Postal Service. The newspaper was acquired by Woodward Communications, Inc. in 1998. Jim Winter is the editor of the Oregon Observer, one of four weekly newspapers owned by Unified Newspaper Group. He has been the editor since August of 2003. Before that, Jim served as sports editor for Schroeder Publications, now UNG, from Feb. of 1998 through July of 2003. Jim also serves as editorial team leader for UNG, supervising the editorial department and performing management duties. Jim earned 15 awards for his sports work, including three first-place awards in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest, for best sports news story and two for best sports pages. In addition, Jim received district Media Man of the Year awards from the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association and the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association, the latter from 2000-2003. Jim is a graduate of Beloit College with a major in creative writing and a minor in journalism. He is heavily involved in his favorite sport, baseball, at both local and national levels, and his wife, Shawnee, owns a dance studio in Stoughton. Bill Livick is the group reporter for Unified Newspaper Group. Livick began writing for UNG in June 2000, and joined the staff full time in August of that year. As UNG's group reporter, Bill writes news and feature stories for all of the group's newspapers: Fitchburg Star, Oregon Observer, Stoughton Courier Hub and Verona Press. His music column, "Notes & Quotes," which features profiles of national, regional and local recording artists, appears each week in the Fitchburg Star . Bill received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a teaching certificate in secondary English education from the University of New Mexico. Bill's professional experience includes working as a free-lance reporter for various daily and weekly publications in south central Wisconsin and teaching high school English on the Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico. Jeremy Jones is the sports editor for Unified Newspaper Group's weekly newspapers: Fitchburg Star, Oregon Observer, Stoughton Courier Hub and Verona Press. Jeremy has an extensive photography background, shooting various freelance assignments and a year of experience at the Tribune Record Gleaner in Loyal, Wis. He earned a second-place award in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest news/feature photography category while in college with his photograph of a flooded Main Street in Prairie du Chien. Jeremy is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a major in Communications Technology and emphasis in visual imaging.