The Selma Post-Herald recently hit a milestone — 10 years in publication. The newspaper, which prints monthly, published its first edition in November 2002. The Selma Post-Herald is written, edited and published in it’s entirety by Randy Williams, who is also the host of the Viewpoint of WHBB.

“Presently I’m a one-man band. I do the layout. I do the composition. I write. I’m the photographer. I’m the editor. I’m the publisher,” Williams said. “And I thank God that I know how to do all those things.”

Williams has been an entrepreneur most of his professional life. He got his start in the media in 1974 in radio, and in the early 1980s he got into his first publication.

“I’ve been involved with printing publications and publishing in some aspect ever since,” he said.

Williams started The Selma Post-Herald in 2002 as an alternative source of print media, he said.

“[It’s] not intended to compete directly with The Selma Times-Journal,” he said. “I felt that there was a need; there was a hole, and that was my perspective. I have a different perspective and a different take on things, so I felt that there was a need for a printed publication that focused on the positive aspects of Selma and Dallas County.”

Williams said the Post-Herald covers more positive stories and tends to focus on the social aspect of Selma and Dallas County. Since the paper’s inception Williams has made some changes, most notably the addition of a website in 2005.

“At one point I had stopped printing because I was going to go strictly all Internet, but the general public kept asking me to bring the paper back, so I started back this year. For almost a year I dealt with strictly Internet,” he said. “People kept asking me to bring the paper back, and I’m glad that I did.”

Now Williams updates the website, selmapostherald.com and publishes a print edition each month.

“It just made sense for me to operate like I do,” Williams said. “It’s a good balance. Sometimes people like to have something to hold in their hand and then there’s also a population out there who are not computer literate.”

Readers who do prefer to read their news online however can still read the Post Herald as it published, on their computer.

“Most of the papers end up being published online in a pdf format anyway. So if you miss the printed version, you can always get it online,” Williams said.

In Williams’ 10 years as publisher he’s had some stand out moments including covering President Obama, when he was a senator, visiting Montgomery for the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the funeral of the wife of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I went to Atlanta and covered that. To see how they tried to clamp down on the media — I ended up getting what I needed, but not without a struggle. It was wild,” he said.

Williams said the public’s response to the Post Herald has been very positive and he plans to continue publishing.

“My goal for The Selma Post-Herald is to tie directly into tourism and to help promote Selma and Dallas County,” Williams said. “I want to tie all of it around Civil War and civil rights history, and things that are happening now and things that are planned in the future that help make the area better. To improve the quality of life for the average citizen, that’s what The Selma Post-Herald is all about.”