Kurt Johnson

Co-Publisher

Aurora News-Register co-publisher Kurt Johnson grew up in a newspaper family. His parents, Elna and the late Loral Johnson, established Johnson Publications, Inc., with papers in Imperial, Wauneta, Grant and just across the border in Holyoke, Colo.

After earning a journalism/business degree from Kearney State College in 1985, Johnson worked in news-editorial management with newspapers in five states, before he and his wife Paula purchased the Aurora News-Register in 2000 from Butch and Nancy Furse.

[NE-E 0101] - Epiphany XCII: Co-Publisher: Kurt Johnson, The Aurora News-Register (2:47)

Kurt Johnson was the executive editor of a local daily newspaper in South Dakota when he got a tip that a college in his town was inflating its enrollment. Using insider information, Johnson’s reporting led to the sale and loss of accreditation for the school. Johnson felt the weight of his work and affirmed that reporting, “is a serious business and you need to treat it that way.”