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Bob Brown made his most significant contribution to Nevada journalism as owner and publisher of the North Las Vegas Valley Times from 1973 to 1984.
He bought the paper from former Las Vegas Sun managing editor Adam Yacenda and two years later turned the weekly paper into a daily. At the time, it made Las Vegas the only city aside from New York with three daily newspapers. Competition with the Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal was intense, but the Valley Times forged a unique path, revolutionizing coverage of politics and gaming in the state, focusing on the business of the gaming industry and on organized crime.
“He turned (the Valley Times) into a must-read publication for politicians, business people and gamers, even though by 1979 its circulation (was dwarfed by its competitors),” wrote Jane Ann Morrison in the Review-Journal.
Brown assembled a talented staff of reporters, including eventual Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame members Ned Day and A.D. Hopkins. Day had unparalleled sources in law enforcement and organized crime, enabling him to uncover mob influence in the gaming industry.
Unfortunately, three dailies in the same city became financially untenable and when the Valley Times ran into trouble Brown got involved in an advertising scheme that allowed mob figures to launder money. After he was caught, he said he did it to keep the paper alive.
Brown also stopped paying taxes. In 1982, the IRS seized the Valley Times’ assets to cover $200,000 in back taxes, leading the paper to declare bankruptcy. Brown was indicted on tax charges and pleaded guilty in 1983.
Shortly before he died at the age of 54 in 1984, Brown testified against a participant in the money-laundering scheme. The prosecutor later wrote, “Brown has devoted a large measure of his life to the public affairs of this state when any number of other pursuits would have been easier and more financially rewarding.”
Brown served as editor of the Review-Journal from 1961 to 1964, when he resigned over a dispute with the owner regarding political coverage. After leaving the paper, Brown worked briefly as a speechwriter for then-U.S. Senate candidate Paul Laxalt.
Two years later he moved to Tucson to serve as the first editor of a new paper, the Tucson Daily American.
Brown was also a correspondent in Asia for UPI, worked as a journalist in Alaska and Arkansas, and served as editor and publisher of the Lacey (Wash.) Leader. He also served as a chairman of the Nevada State Tax Commission.
Brown was posthumously honored as a Distinguished Nevadan by the Nevada System of Higher Education.
