Ray L. Robinson, who ran a family of local newspapers for decades, including the Salem Times-Register, died Tuesday. He was 71.
 
Robinson and his wife, Jeanne, took over the Salem weekly in 1965. Though common knowledge held that television would kill off weekly newspapers and radio, in time, he more than doubled the paper's circulation. 
 
Robinson built up the Salem Publishing Company, adding the New Castle Record to his properties in 1972. In 1984, he bought the Vinton Messenger and the Fincastle Herald. He maintained that the Salem Times-Register was his favorite, because it gave him the chance to buy the other three.
 
And for some Salemites, the paper was a badge of the city's independence. Former Mayor Jim Taliaferro once told a Roanoke reporter, "I ain't talking to you, boy. The only papers this town needs are the Salem Times-Register and USA Today, so I don't give a damn what you think."
 
Robinson considered school, community, church and local government the four news pillars of his weeklies. His philosophy was to localize the news for readers and focus on details, he explained in a 1984 interview. He wanted to print down-to-earth feature stories with heavy emphasis on pictures, he said. His weeklies regularly won community news awards.
 
In 2001, he sold the four newspapers and retired. "Selling the paper wasn't an easy decision. The time was right. The publications are healthy. And the purchase price was right," Ray Robinson told The Roanoke Times after the sale was announced. "The decision wasn't made with my heart. It was made with my head."
 
The Carroll County native and Navy veteran, who had been diagnosed with cancer, enjoyed growing roses. Funeral arrangements will be held at Lotz Funeral Homes in Salem.