Photo By Connie Dickey | the August 2021 edition will be the last printed edition of the Herald Union. The...... read more read more
Subscribe
WIESBADEN, Germany—It’s a wrap! This is the last printed edition of the U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Herald Union. Although it has been around since the World War II era, budgetary constraints, manpower issues and the increased use of social media sites to obtain news and information has signaled it is time to stop publishing the printed newspaper.
The newspaper stopped publication for a short while in 2017 when it transitioned from a bi-weekly to a monthly newspaper, but The Herald Union and its predecessors, all under different mastheads, commands and locations, kept military members in the greater Wiesbaden area apprised of community news and information as a post newspaper for more than 75 years.
According to Laurri Garcia, USAG Wiesbaden Public Affairs Director, the end of the Herald Union printed newspaper is a way for the public affairs staff to provide more timely, relevant and accessible information to the community.
“We're excited about the opportunity to focus our limited resources on producing products and communications platforms available to a wider more diverse audience; with a focus on mission, relevance, resilience and readiness,” she said.
“If COVID has taught us nothing else, it's taught us information, and the timely dissemination of information, via multiple channels is critical to the life, health, safety and readiness of our Soldiers, Families and the USAG Wiesbaden Community at large,” Garcia said.
The Herald Union’s lineage dates to just after World War II when The Occupation Chronicle was established in 1946 to serve readers stationed at the Frankfurt Military Post. The newspaper’s name remained until 1950.
According to available archives, a “Chronicle” rolled off the presses in Frankfurt for nearly 22 years. Over the years, it has been named The Chronicle, The Chronicle-Post, TASCOM Chronicle and the NACom Chronicle — which stood for the North Area Command.
Nevertheless, the purpose of the paper remained the same through 1974 until the temporary retirement of the TASCOM Chronicle, which was likely associated with the dissolution of the U.S. Theater Army Support Command Europe in the same year.
The newspaper re-emerged on Oct. 1, 1975, as the Frankfurt Chronicle, a four-page weekly newspaper “devoted to readers in the greater Frankfurt Military Community,” according to the first edition.
It, like the Wiesbaden Post, Giessen Courier and other similar newspapers, served the individual U.S. military communities scattered throughout Hessen and Rheinland-Pfalz. The newspaper was delivered to all housing area mail boxes each Friday and was available at the Frankfurt Shopping Center for “economy dwellers and Soldiers living in billets.”
The Frankfurt Chronicle continued to provide weekly news and information through the 1980s and early 90s and was eventually consolidated into the new area support group publication, based out of Darmstadt and Hanau.
The newspaper went through a name change when the 103rd Area Support Group deactivated and the 418th Base Support Battalion passed to the 104th ASG in 1993. For two months, the paper was named What’s My Name? while a community contest was held to choose a new name. At that time the newspaper also changed from a weekly to a biweekly. The publication’s new name, Hessen Herald, was revealed in the Dec. 16, 1993 edition. The winning name was selected from more than 60 entries.
Changes were still to come for the 104th ASG and the new masthead didn’t stay around long. Military drawdowns and base realignment and closure prompted another name change in October 1997 to begin serving readers in the communities of the former 53rd ASG which included the communities of Babenhausen, Baumholder, Dexheim and Friedberg.
According to an article in the last Hessen Herald on Sept. 18, 1997, the name change was a result of combining the current name, Hessen Herald, with that of the 53rd ASG’s newspaper, the Post-Union.
The first Herald Union was published Oct. 1, 1997 and served the areas of 104th ASG, which was made up of the following Base Support Battalion Groups: 221st BSB (Wiesbaden); 222nd BSB (Baumholder); 233rd BSB (Darmstadt); 284th BSB (Giessen /Friedberg); 410th BSB (Bad Kreuznach / Dexheim); 414th BSB (Büdingen and Hanau). The black and white newspaper was printed biweekly with a circulation of 23,000.
The Herald Union name remained with the newspaper for 19 years and five months.
During those years, the front page appeared regularly in full color starting in November 1998. After paid advertising was introduced in 2000, the entire paper appeared in full color and an online version was launched at Herald-Union.com in 2009. The newspaper also moved with the command – first from Darmstadt, then to Hanau with the 104th ASG and eventually to Wiesbaden to serve U.S. Army Garrison Hessen and then U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden.
(Historical parts of this story were used from a story by Amy L. Bugala)
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2021 07:16 |
| Story ID: | 402823 |
| Location: | WIESBADEN, HESSEN, DE |
| Web Views: | 475 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Last edition of post newspaper rolls off press, by Connie Dickey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
