Pvt. Matthew Marcellus, a 1st Armored Division public affairs specialist, on the move at Ready First Field on East Fort Bliss Saturday. For our final edition, the Bugle staff and Laven Publishing wishes to thank the 70-plus years of military journalists who have been the lifeblood of this publication. Your commitment to telling the Army story at home and abroad, with little fanfare, has dutifully presented our history to the American people in living color. Thank you for always putting your fellow Soldiers and your units first. (Photo by David Poe, USAG Fort Bliss)

Final Bliss newspaper: Fort Bliss Bugle ends run after 78 years

By Michelle L. Gordon, Fort Bliss Bugle Editor

If you are reading this story on a screen, not much is going to change for you, but if you are reading an actual newspaper, this is the last printed issue of the Fort Bliss Bugle.

Fort Bliss news stories are not going away. We are just adjusting the way you receive them. Rather than print and distribute 13,000 copies of the newspaper each week and then recycling the majority of those copies a week later, the stories will be released digitally and shared on Fort Bliss social media platforms.

A newspaper closing is far from news these days. It’s happening to newspapers nationwide as the industry evolves from traditional print products to modern digital formats. However, it still wasn’t an easy decision to make, especially considering the long history of printed media on this installation.

The first Fort Bliss newspaper was published Feb. 7, 1941. It was called the Fort Bliss Post-News and there were only two issues. Two weeks later it was renamed and the first issue of the Fort Bliss Cavalcade was published Feb. 21, 1941. The newspaper became the Fort Bliss News in 1943, and then on July 4, 1968, it was renamed the Monitor — a name inspired by a suggestion from Lt. Col. D.J. Fuller, the British Liaison Officer to the Air Defense Artillery School. According to news coverage from the time, “the name summed up the task of the Air Defense Center. It told against what and how we were defending.”

The paper underwent one more name change in summer 2013.

The mission of Fort Bliss changed when the Air Defense Artillery School relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, so the paper was rebranded as the Bugle to be inclusive of all Fort Bliss units. The new name had the dual purpose – it reflected the installation’s role as a global power-projection platform, and it respected its history – when the Army communicated orders and maintained discipline and schedules with the bugle.

Regardless of the name, over the years the Fort Bliss newspaper and its staff won just about every Army-level writing and photojournalism award, including being named the best Army Printed Publication for 2018. 

This week begins a new era in the 78-year-history of Fort Bliss news. While there will no longer be a printed version of the newspaper, there will be news stories about Fort Bliss Soldiers, their families, and installation quality-of-life programs. Be on the lookout for a new Fort Bliss News webpage on the installation website, https://home.army.mil/bliss, and be sure to like us on Facebook @fortblissgarrison, and follow us on instagram @usagfortbliss.

If you have been a dedicated reader of the hardcopy version of the Bugle, The Monitor, the Fort Bliss News, the Fort Bliss Cavalcade, or even the Fort Bliss Post-News, we thank you for your readership and we hope you will join us online.

Note from the publisher
The Laven Publishing Group is proud to have published the Fort Bliss Bugle/Monitor for 35 years. Our mission has always been to publish an excellent newspaper, and we were so pleased the newspaper won so many awards throughout the years, most recently, the “2018 Best in IMCOM” and “2018 Best in the Army.” 

It goes without saying that working with all the folks at Fort Bliss, and especially those at the Public Affairs Office, over the years has truly been an honor. Likewise, we are thankful for the many advertisers who have supported the Fort Bliss community and their newspaper year after year. We know it will be missed by many.