Adam Yacenda

Adam John Yacenda (December 17, 1915 – June 13, 1986) was an American newspaper publisher and political adviser. He began his career working for various newspapers in New York and New Jersey before moving to California in the 1940s for health reasons. There, he published the Beverly Hills Bulletin before taking a job as then-U.S. Representative Richard Nixon's press secretary. After Nixon's success senate campaign in 1950, Yacenda moved to Las Vegas where he became editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

Yacenda subsequently worked on the re-election campaign of Governor Charles H. Russell before founding the North Las Vegas based Valley Times in 1959 as a weekly publication. As publisher of the new paper, he became an advocate for the city's growth. The paper grew quickly, becoming a tri-weekly before Yacenda decided to sell the paper to Bob Brown in 1973 for health reasons. Yacenda remained political and socially active. He continued to write for several Las Vegas publications, worked as a close adviser to Oran Gragson on four successful election campaigns, and helped to establish the North Las Vegas Library.

Yacenda died in Houston in 1986 while awaiting heart surgery.

Career Adam John Yacenda was born December 17, 1915, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He began his career as a stringer for the New York World-Telegram before spending time at several New Jersey newspapers.

In 1950, Yacenda became then-congressman Richard Nixon's press secretary. Under Yacenda's leadership, the paper continued to grow. In 1963, it moved to twice weekly publication. Explaining the growth years later, reporter Bruce Hasley remarked "[Yacenda] really understood how to make a small community paper succeed. I will never forget his hammering away at photos of children and dogs and getting as many names of local people in the paper as we could." Upon his death, Las Vegas Today editor Norma Staley described Yacenda as "a first class journalist [and] a super human being." He had four other brothers – Dom, Pat, Albert, and Sam – and two sisters – Claire Vaughn and Mary.