Your favorite newspaper, Bear Essential News for Kids, has a lot to celebrate as it turns 30 years old!

It was a long, long time ago when this Arizona original (see photo) first printed. The year was 1979, and fashionable folks really did dress as badly as you probably imagine—disco and icky polyester clothes were the rage!



Started by an elementary schoolteacher and her artist husband, the first issues of Bear Essential News had a strange sort of campiness to them. Back then, Boomer Bear didn’t grace the front cover. The mascot for the brand new kids newspaper was known simply as “The Bear.” Fortunately, the front cover offered hidden pictures for young readers to find. Inside were all sorts of news blurbs, funky artwork, puzzles and fun facts. And like the daily newspapers of the time, the first issues of Bear Essential News were just black-and-white, with no color on their pages!



After the newspaper rolled off the press, drivers loaded the bundles of Bear into their car trunks and mini trucks to deliver them about town, especially to schools. Kids were lucky to get a free newspaper made just for them. In fact, if your parents went to Phoenix or Tucson schools, they might have grown up reading Bear Essential News for Kids, too! What a great tradition!



Another great tradition of the newspaper is the free reporter program for kids, in which students get the training and reporters stuff they need to start writing news stories for Bear. This award-winning writing program started two years after the newspaper’s first edition printed. Since then, this band of intrepid Young Reporters has had no problem “getting the scoop.” Young Reporters have interviewed presidents, generals, members of Congress, governors, famous athletes, movie stars and music SENSATIONS. But perhaps their most important contribution to this newspaper is covering the news that happens around them—at their schools, in their clubs and in their communities. Young Reporters are Bear’s eyes and ears around the state. To be a Young Reporter, kids in grades 3 through 8 can print out the sign-up forms that they need at BearEssentialNews.com (click on Young Reporters.)



These days, Bear Essential News distributes over a quarter million newspapers all over the state each month. And thanks to LOYAL readers like you, this great newspaper for kids will continue to have something to celebrate for many years to come!

Bear’s First Issue in 1979