Tracy McCue, an award-winning news reporter and photographer in south-central Kansas, is launching a new website called Sumner Newscow.
The news website, which will provide news, sports and commentary for Sumner County, will launch Aug. 29.
Sumner NewsCow will be a sister site to Newscow.net. McCue will also serve as sports editor for NewsCow.net.
Shane Farley, owner of the Cowley site, launched Newscow in 2007 and its popularity has expanded to more than a million visits a year.
"We are excited to expand the NewsCow product into the Sumner County market," Farley said. "This gives people an opportunity to see what citizen journalism is all about."
McCue, a Wellington resident since 1992, is the owner of SumnerNewscow.com.
"It has occurred to me for quite awhile that a newspaper needs to be owned and written by local people," McCue said. "I have invested quite a bit of time and resources in an attempt to make that happen."
Sumner Newscow is a digital-only newspaper, but McCue has not ruled out the possibility of expanding into print in the future.
"Right now, we want to focus on bringing Sumner County residents good, clean, intelligent, objective news reporting," McCue said. "Shane and I have always shared a vision that the story always comes first.”
The partnership was a natural fit. Both worked together as editors at the Winfield Courier in the early 2000s and have Wellington ties.
McCue has worked at numerous newspapers for the past 25 years, including the Wellington Daily News which he served from 1992 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2011.
Farley, is the son of Roger and Carolyn Farley of Wellington. He is a 1992 Wellington High School graduate. He still has family residing in Wellington and Sumner County.
McCue is best known as Cueball, a moniker he created two decades ago. Since his arrival he’s covered an exhaustive number of local sports teams. Recently he had the privilege of following the Wellington High School girls tennis team win a Class 4A state championship in 2010 and the Argonia girls win a basketball championship in 2011.
Although sports is his passion, McCue is also excited to be getting back into news where he will keep a careful eye on local city and county government, while also staying abreast on the news happenings of the day.
"It is my goal to bring Sumner County residents comprehensive local news in a timely fashion," McCue said. "Wellington and the surrounding communities deserve to know what is happening about the events around them in an unbiased way by a local company whose sole concern is Sumner County.
"We well know what is good for New York City or Pittsburg, Kan. isn’t necessarily good for Wellington and Sumner County," McCue said. "Sumner Newscow won’t be about helping out a newspaper in Timbuktu. The buck stays here."
McCue is married to local physician Tami McCue. He has three children: Devin, 15; Allison, 12; and Quinn 9 — all students within the Wellington USD 353 school system.
"I hope residents log onto Sumnernewscow.com to see what we are about," McCue said. "In a couple weeks, local journalism will return to Sumner County. We think it’s about time."