It was that tall, dusty stack of newspapers in the corner that caught his eye. That was back in '82 when John Hankins, owner of County News Service, was interviewing a local Supervisor in his office. The Supervisor mentioned how much time his staff spent clipping articles for his files, if they even had the time. A few weeks later, Santa Barbara County News Clipping Service (CNCS) was launched, and the Supervisor became John's first client.

Word of mouth spread so rapidly that in 1989, John sold the County News Service and hired professional readers with backgrounds in journalism and research. This staff is adept at finding even hidden references, to complete twice-weekly news packets sent to subscribers.

The news clipping library has spawned a one-of-a-kind research function - digging out the history of political campaigns, oil and water wars, court and crime actions . . . and much more.

John Hankins, the consumate reporter, worked for the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Oakland Tribune, Santa Barbara News-Press and various weeklies and UCSB's interlibrary loan and research division. He currently writes news features for magazines and edits a bi-monthly newspaper.