Now, the Scooper runs fazzler.com and the broadstreetbeacon.com. The Nevada County Scooper, now the National Scooper (more on that in a minute), was founded on June 12th, 1914, by Fred Bloomfield III, Esq. and his wife Vinalla A. Bloomfield. Throughout its 92-year history, the Scooper, as locals affectionately call it, has striven to provide its citizens with the most up-to-date and hard-hitting j
ournalism ever witnessed by mankind. As the recipient of many awards, the Scooper recently ran out of wall space in its Penn Valley office after receiving a Gold Record from long-time supporter and Scooper reader, fan, and supporter Alice Cooper. Early History
In its early days, the Scooper was published from downtown Grass Valley and was the chief competitor to another unnamed local newspaper. During this time, the Scooper did not own a printing press, nor did they have the courage to borrow one. And frankly, they didn’t have the funds either. So the Scooper relied solely on shouting at people on the street to circulate the news. Later in the 1930s, the Scooper expanded its shouting service to Nevada City, often paying vagrants to assault citizens with the news. Bloomfield was a firm believer in enlightened self-interest and believed that he was serving both the community and the paper’s interests. Also, he liked to yell. The original Scooper building was consumed by fire in 1946, 1947, 1952, 1963, 1970, and for good measure, 1984. Middle History
In 1949, after 17 long years of World War II, the Scooper finally purchased a printing press. However, due to the untimely death of Mr. Bloomfield’s wife in a bizarre gardening accident, he decided to sell his holdings in the newspaper to the Hearst Corporation for an undisclosed sum. The monies from this transaction were used for various failed housing developments around Nevada County, including the infamous “retirement homes over Wolf Creek” project. The few homes that were built fell into the creek after the record snow melt of 1951. Following the abrupt departure of Scooper Publisher Charles Foster Kane in 1952, “the Great Savior,” also known as David Covino, took the Scooper’s helm and turned the struggling paper into a profitable enterprise. Covino stayed in charge until 1989 when a trust fund alcoholic named Harold F. Buck took over and nearly destroyed the Scooper with reckless spending, all-night parties, and lots of company-purchased booze. He remained the publisher until 2011, when he was found blacked out at Greenhorn creek. Fresh History
After over 94 years in the news business, the holding company sold the Scooper and its assets to former Fresno State math genius Randall “Fink” Finkelstein. Fink immediately set out to build a world-class local newspaper, as he put it, “for the rest of us in Nevada County…and maybe Sierra County if I can ever get up there.” His goal of bringing cosmopolitan worldliness and insightful blog commentary to Nevada County is first and foremost. Unless there’s money to be made in Sierra City, he will also include them. But that didn't work out, so Fink expanded the Scooper's reach nationwide because he loved the ZZ Top song. And thus, the National Scooper was born.
