Fincher named newspaper's new publisher

Brenda Fincher has been named the new publisher of the Mountain Home News.

She replaces Coleen Swenson, who had served as publisher since 1991.

Prior to her promotion from within by the Rust Communications Group, the owner of the Mountain Home News, she had served as business manager of the paper for more than 22 years.

The announcement of the change in leadership was made by Randy List, vice president for Rust Communications, who noted that "I've known Brenda for several years and I'm excited about her leading our team going forward. Brenda is focused on improving our products and giving readers the news that is important to them."

She added that "the newspaper business is an ever changing world with new things to hear, see and most importantly learn. As the publisher of the Mountain Home News I am looking forward to this new opportunity to grow and expand our entire newspaper family in our community and as a business in our city.

"I am looking forward to working with our strong and dedicated staff in producing and sharing our newspapers and website with you, our readers," she said.

"Please keep me updated on your community and business events so that myself and staff can reach out and help you promote your business and events as well as be your weekly news source.

"I look forward to meeting some new faces and catching up with some old faces," she said.

Looking back over her career, She said that she has fond memories of the people she's worked with at the newspaper the past 22 years and is looking forward to taking a new road in her journey.

"I have met a lot of people in our company that I now call friends," along with the "family" she works with at the office every day, she said.

While most days are fairly routine, others can be quite memorable, she added.

"It can be a crazy business, and oh, Lordy, the characters I've met," she said. "It for sure keeps me busy."

A native of San Antonio, Texas, she is a former military dependant, whose experience as a business manager started in 1976 when she was hired as the office manager at the youth center at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Wash. She moved up in the ranks when the family moved to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where she served as the head cashier in 1978 and was in charge of the slot machines located in the military clubs on base.

In 1982, she moved to Mountain Home Air Force Base where she became the assistant accounting office manager at the installation's noncommissioned officers' club.

In 1987, she took a break from military-specific work to serve as an assistant head teller for a bank at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. In time, she accepted a position with the nonappropriated funds management office at the base -- a military accounting agency that oversaw financial accounts of the base's recreation facilities.

Four years later, she and her children returned to Mountain Home where she resumed her accounting duties. In time, she accepted the job at the Mountain Home News.

"In the last 22+ years, I have learned and had my fingers in participating in every aspect of publishing our newspapers," she said.

About the only thing she hasn't done is run the printing press, "even though I've done my share of catching them as they 'fly' out the end from the folder," she added.

She leaves the printing aspect of the newspaper to her husband, Larry Fincher, who serves as the lead pressman at the Mountain Home News. The two met in 1995 and were married five years later.

Together, they have five children and 16 grandchildren.

She is the daughter of Jim and Bess McCluer of Mountain Home. Her mother-in-law is Jean Hershberger of Yreka, Calif.

Their family includes their children, Leann (Larry) Meridian and five grandchildren from that couple, Michael (Erin) of Ocala, Fla., and two grandchildren from that family, Brandon (Lisa) of Santa Paula, Calif., and five grandchildren in that family, Melanie (Reid) of Allen, Texas and four grandchildren from that family, Brian of Dallas, Texas, and their extended family.