DRY CREEK PRESS
Publishers of "The Best of Us" book series

Bill Bailey founded and published "The Good News Paper" in 1970. It was the first newspaper ever devoted solely to the 'good news'. During its 2-year run it had garnered over 30,000 subscribers in 800 cities, 50 states, and 9 foreign countries. He received press coverage in Time Magazine, Associated Press, National Enquirer, and many other international publications including the Manchester Guardian, Stern Magazine, and even Pravda and Isvestia in the former Soviet Union. He also appeared on numerous TV talk shows of the 70's, including Virginia Graham Show, Steve Allen Show and others. With no circulaton department, lack of national advertisers,a volunteer staff and limited capital,Bailey closed the newspaper in 1972, having proven that there was a worldwide market for good news that was being overlooked by the traditional news media.

Bill became known as "The Good News Newsman", and also published 2 other good news papers for local communities that were financially successful.

Later in the 70's and 80's he produced TV good news stories for Turner Broadcasting nationally, and Channel 31 News in Sacramento, California.

In 1996, Simon and Schuster's Pocket Books published Bill Bailey's "America's Good News Almanac". Inspirational True Stories to Warm the Heart.

When his book went out of print after a 5-year run,Dry Creek Press was formed by Bill Bailey in order to publish "America's Good News Almanac" in an entirely new version with a new title( Bill never did like the title selection which Pocket Books selected) in trade paperback,E-book, and Audio editions.The new title will be: GOOD NEWS ABOUT AMERICA A Treasury of Enduring Stories of Hope, Heart and Heroes Behind the Bad News Headlines

UPDATE! In addition to the reprinting in trade paperback and E-book editions of the newly re-titled America's Good News Almanac, Dry Creek Press will also publish Bill Bailey's new book, THE BEST OF US, 50 Inspiring Everyday People Who are Making the World a Better Place. Publication planned for 2007.

THE BEST OF US..,will become an ongoing series of books that feature people who are changing the world for the better. They will be available for sale here on this website, bookstores worldwide, online at Amazon.com and other online booksellers. There will be Trade paperback, E-book, and Audio versions also.

A NOTE FROM BILL BAILEY -

Since this is supposed to be a biography, here's a little background of the rest of my career.

I'm a college dropout. No journalism degree. I opted instead to become an 18 year old door to door salesman selling fine bavarian china and swedish crystal to single working women for their 'hope chests'.

I became very good at selling china and crystal, and soon led the nation in sales, working my way up from salesman, to district manager, to a national sales vice president by age of 29, interrupted only by 2 years in the US Army, stationed in Germany, where I served as a photographer and a legal court reporter.

During my stint as a National Sales Vice President, in Chicago, I suffered ulcers and a silent heart attack and a fine doctor there informed me that perhaps the corporate world and my aversion to it might be the cause. He also said if I didn't change the way I was handling stress I probably would not see the age of 40.

I decided to pack up my wife and 4 children, with number 5 on the way and move back to California and start all over, and do whatever would light my fire instead of narrowing my arteries.

In the summer of 1970 I started a daily entertainment guide called The Aquarian Times in Sacramento, California, which was basically a simple 2 page folded in half sheet with a guide to nightspots, restaurants, and other entertainment delivered free every morning by a taxi company to hotels and coffee shops and filled with advertising.

For editorial content I began to insert little 'good news' items between the advertisements. Soon, the 'good news' was getting more attention than the entertainment, and in a brash statement to the local 20-30 club one morning, I announced that I would be publishing a full size tabloid newspaper that would only contain good news..'The World's First Good News Newspaper'.

Naturally, I had no idea in the world how to publish a newspaper, so I sought advice from bankers, newsmen, and other 'experts'. They all said I was crazy, and it couldn't be done without tons of money, and expertise.

Fortunately for me, my parents taught me at an early age that a person could do anything they set their mind to, and besides, I was too dumb to know it couldn't be done, so within 3 months, the first issue was ready to be printed, thanks to a hastily recruited staff that was mostly volunteer, and an editor, Terry Dennis, who had studied journalism for 2 years at a community college in Washington State.

In the audacity of youth, I sent out press releases announcing the upcoming first issue of "The Good News Paper' to all the major news media, including Time Magazine.

To my surprise, Time Magazine read the release, called a local journalist who was a columnist for the largest daily newspaper in Sacramento, California, who also happened to be a part time contributor to Time Magazine.

They asked him if this 'Bill Bailey guy was for real'. he assured them I was, and Time ran a short story about the upcoming 'Good News Paper' in their American Notes section, the opening article in the October 26th issue of Time Magazine..which ran in every issue worldwide.

This publicity kicked off a wave of stories around the world about our efforts to publish a newspaper filled with only good news, and made the paper an internationl publication overnight.

For almost 2 years, we published 16-32 pages of good news stories and gathered over 30,000 subscribers in over 800 cities and all 50 states, and in 9 foreign countries. National Advertisers wanted 100,000 readers in order to buy space, and we were far too spread out for local advertisers. We relied on subscription revenue and my credit cards to survive, and finally, in 1972, I reluctantly closed the Good News Paper down.

The relief by some of the news media was startling, and there were over 800 editorials nationwide about the end of the Good News Paper, most of them pointing out that this was proof that people didn't want to read good news.

To me, it only proved I'd run out of money, and if I had had capital, and a circulation and promotion department, we would have found a huge audience, as well as advertising support. It also proved to me that more positive news existed than was being reported, and there was a hunger for it then, as much as there is today.

Within a year of closing the paper, I had an offer to come to a little town of Brea, California and start a weekly community newspaper in a town of 26,000 who had never had one.The developers of the restoration of downtown Brea agreed to finance it, and I agreed to create a newspaper, which I named, "Brea's Good News Paper'.

No crime news, no scandals, only the upbeat, daily activities of a small town.

It was an immediate success, with 90% of the town subscribing, and advertising support was so strong that we had all advertising space sold out 6 months in advance. I sold the paper in less than a year and moved back to Northern California, satisfied that I had proven good news could be financially successful, and I could move on to other things.

Those other things included my own advertising agency, creation of city maps with birds-eye views of the towns drawn in caricature for 30 small towns in Northern California, and a number of other ventures, some of which succeeded, and a lot that failed miserably.

I could never seem to get 'good news' completely out of my mind however, and in 1985 Ted Turner of Turner Broadcasting was putting a daily 'good news' TV program on his national network. I was able to talk them into letting me produce some stories and over the year his show lasted got paid pretty well for doing good news feature stories for TV, that I produced by hiring a camera man and crew from one of the local TV stations to moonlight for me shooting my stories.

Eventually, I produced 'Bill Bailey's Good News' on a weekly basis for the local UPN affiliate, Channel 31.

In between these stints as the Good News Newsman, I made my living in a number of sometimes unrelated businesses and entreprenurial adventures, including:

Consulting for a German mapmaker and helping him sell licenses for his city map cartography in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Starting a tent rental business in Maui, Hawaii, for the special events of five-star hawaiian hotels, PGA golf tounaments, etc.

Information Director for a land developer of vacation properties in Bocas Del Toro Panama.

Writing Copy for websites, marketing brochures, and sales letters.

Consulting on writing for writers trying to get published.

And, in 1996, selling my first (and only so far) book, AMERICA'S GOOD NEWS ALMANAC, to Simon and Schuster's Pocket Books division.

After seeing that I wasn't going to see America's Good News Almanac, make the best seller list, I pretty much decided I had done all I could do as the Good News Newsman.

Until now. On my home page you can read more about the long journey that has brought me back full circle to reporting good news, but the short answer is that it is for the same basic reasons why I did it 35 years ago.

There are too many stories of hope, heart, heroes and accomplishments that go untold or unheralded. And too many stories of death, destruction and doom that dominate our daily news of the world around us. It simply comes down to that.

I believe with all my heart that the media has the power to shape how we think by what they choose as news. I believe it is not doing a good enough job of giving equal attention to the solution of problems, the breakthroughs in science and medicine, and the millions of people who are out there every day making a difference. These, and more, are the positive stories that will ultimately define us.

So there you have it, a long biography, and something to put you to sleep if you have insomnia. Have a Good News Day every day, and God Bless.