During the summer of 1964, Emily and Don Battey, publishers of the Livingston Manor Times, expanded their influence into Sullivan County journalism by taking over and publishing Liberty’s Sullivan County Press. In an era when local weekly newspapers were struggling to survive, the Sullivan County Press was one of three Liberty surviving newspapers, not counting a throwaway advertising journal, which included the long running Liberty Register and the Liberty News. 

Put at the helm as editor and managing the Liberty newspaper was Ed Townsend. The new conservative orientated editor was not a newcomer in the field of journalism, having been on the staff of the Middletown Times-Herald Record, an advertising editor for Southern Publishers and sports editor for the Liberty Register. With the addition of Townsend to the Batteys’ publications, bowling news and highlights became a popular feature that could be found in both papers. But bowling scores were not the only items shared by the papers, for soon front-page articles along with opinionated editorials could be found, word for word, in both the Liberty and Livingston Manor newspapers.