Joe Soldwedel is a survivor – times two.
He has logged more than 60 years in the media and publishing industry, and has been to hell and back after being intentionally poisoned.
Soldwedel, 71, the patriarch of the family-owned media company Western News&Info, Inc. – the parent company to the Navajo-Hopi Observer – began his career in the media business in May 1963, at the age of 11, for the Yuma Daily Sun.
“Being a carrier helped teach me about managing money and getting organized,” he said.
His father, Don, bought The (Prescott) Daily Courier with partner F.F. McNaughton in 1958, and built Western Newspapers, Inc. – now Western News&Info, Inc. – into a multi-media enterprise that has comprised three daily newspapers, 12 non-dailies, 44 specialty publications, two radio stations, two telephone directories, an outdoor advertising company, a specialty sign firm, two central printing plants, one commercial print shop, and numerous news and advertising-related websites.
“Dad moved me to the mailroom (in May 1964) where I hand-inserted comics and advertising flyers into The Sun,” Joe said, adding that his range of duties thereafter ranged from being a “printer’s devil” lugging hot lead buckets around the pressroom to helping in the advertising, composition and circulation departments.
He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and went to work at the Kingman Daily Miner. His responsibilities included circulation and advertising.
“Dad and Mom (Luda Soldwedel) didn’t squeeze me hard to join the company after college; it was an unspoken tacit agreement,” Joe said. “The day after I graduated from UofA, Dad handed me a sheet explaining my task ahead in Kingman. I never considered working anywhere else. I represent the third generation overseeing the family business.”
Joe bloomed further to become publisher and CEO of the family’s weekly newspaper, the Lake Havasu City Herald, in 1975.
“Looking back on my career… it’s been a heck of a ride,” he said recently. “And it’s not over yet.
“Dad and Mom – who both lived through the Great Depression – used to preach about treating people right. One reason being ‘you might wake up tomorrow and learn that we’re broke.’”
Joe said the family still believes in the relevance and viability of community newspapers. Proof of that was seen earlier this year with WNI purchasing 50% of the assets of newspapers in Wickenburg and Bullhead City, Arizona, as well as in Laughlin, Nevada, and Needles, California. The other 50% is owned by long-time partner Wick Communications. Wick is also a family-owned media company, based out of Sierra Vista, Arizona.
As for Joe, he officially took the reins of WNI in 1983.
He said his most illuminating experience was as CEO in Lake Havasu City. “I was 22 when I took over a newspaper in a town where everyone was from somewhere else, especially not from Arizona. I wasn’t ready for the role and got schooled daily by the townspeople.
“I threw away my college textbook on management. I started believing that being screamed at daily was something to look forward to. By the time I moved to Yuma, at age 25, I was better prepared.”
Milestones
The family-owned corporation has seen many breakthroughs, beginning with promoting women to top management roles, such as with Kit Atwell in 1987. She retired at the end of 2021 as publisher of Prescott Newspapers, Inc.
Joe’s milestones include that he is “still here on the job in my seventh decade of service for WNI – 40 years running the company.”
He added that WNI remains vibrant and healthy “in this wild and crazy media environment,” enduring seven economic recessions since 1974.
His only regret: “On a personal note, allowing myself to get into a situation in which I was nearly poisoned to death.”
Poison
As previously reported in the Courier, Joe received lab test results in June 2017 confirming he had been poisoned at lethal levels.
“The thallium definitely caused permanent damage – double vision at a distance, partially numb right hand, half of my lung tissue destroyed. Meaning, I function on one lung. My current lung function is at its peak, (about) 55%. I tested just over 30% in summer 2017,” he said.
“The past six years has been a difficult slog, but well worth it. Emotionally, it’s critical for someone in my situation not to lug around a backpack full of anger, resentment and frustration. Doing so will kill someone faster than the side effects of poisoning.”
The testing was conducted by Carlson Company, a forensics toxicology and DNA diagnostics company in Westminster, Colorado. From hair samples, and later fingernail shavings, Carlson did a heavy metals test as well as a look for thallium. The first hair test, which excluded thallium, revealed lethal levels of lithium, plus a host of other metals and ingredients commonly found in rat poison. Subsequent hair testing for thallium showed extremely deadly levels.
Basically, Joe had six times the acceptable level for lithium and 16 times for thallium.
The lab also tested dental floss, resulting in 21 toxins including uranium, arsenic and mercury; the lining of a pair of Justin boots, coated with vaginal cream; a leather wallet, soaked in meth; and a leather handle on a piece of luggage, covered in a plasticizer (used in vinyl flooring).
Not like he needed more challenges, Joe contracted Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) in September 2019.
“I was misdiagnosed three times in September 2019 as having shingles before receiving a correct diagnosis around Oct. 9,” he related. “I was airlifted from Yuma to Phoenix’s Barrow (Neurological Institute) where I spent the next three weeks.”
He came within a few days of dying, according to Barrow doctors.
“I had to learn how to walk again, (and) yes, I have permanent damage: one-third of my right hand is numb.”
His naturopath, Dr. Robert Milisen, believes Joe got GBS because his nervous and immune systems had been compromised by the numerous poisons he ingested from 2013 through 2017.
Does he have concerns that new medical problems might pop up, caused by all the toxins? “Definite concerns. But most of us 71-year-olds worry about waking up tomorrow with everything in working order.”
Joe’s therapy, recovery and recuperation has included chelation therapy, which involves special drugs that bind to metals in your blood; “My attackers hit me mainly with heavy metals,” he said, adding that he began with about eight chelation treatments a month; “now it’s once a month in Prescott. … I plan to continue monthly as long as I live.”
He also has undergone “cocoon” booster shots; CPAP therapy to help with sleep; quit drinking alcohol and smoking; moved to a lower elevation (Yuma) to assist with breathing; and adopted a steady mild exercise program.
“I cannot run, meaning no more tennis; picked up golf,” said Joe, who also avoids over-exerting himself. “The goal is to maximize the one lung I have left.
“Naturopathic doctors have been much more helpful and insightful and open than the traditional Western, or allopathic, doctors.”
Movie
One project he took on, which provided a distraction as well as therapy of its own, was producing the full-length Hollywood film, “SPIKED,” which was released in March 2021.
It is the movie, based on true events, about the murder of a migrant worker that shakes a Southwest border town to its core; a feud between a newspaper owner and the chief of police leads to the blurring of the truth and a dirty fight for justice.
The movie stars Aidan Quinn, and one of its themes is poisoning.
Joe Soldwedel is a survivor – times two.
He has logged more than 60 years in the media and publishing industry, and has been to hell and back after being intentionally poisoned.
Soldwedel, 71, the patriarch of the family-owned media company Western News&Info, Inc. – the parent company to the Navajo-Hopi Observer – began his career in the media business in May 1963, at the age of 11, for the Yuma Daily Sun.
“Being a carrier helped teach me about managing money and getting organized,” he said.
His father, Don, bought The (Prescott) Daily Courier with partner F.F. McNaughton in 1958, and built Western Newspapers, Inc. – now Western News&Info, Inc. – into a multi-media enterprise that has comprised three daily newspapers, 12 non-dailies, 44 specialty publications, two radio stations, two telephone directories, an outdoor advertising company, a specialty sign firm, two central printing plants, one commercial print shop, and numerous news and advertising-related websites.
“Dad moved me to the mailroom (in May 1964) where I hand-inserted comics and advertising flyers into The Sun,” Joe said, adding that his range of duties thereafter ranged from being a “printer’s devil” lugging hot lead buckets around the pressroom to helping in the advertising, composition and circulation departments.
He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and went to work at the Kingman Daily Miner. His responsibilities included circulation and advertising.
“Dad and Mom (Luda Soldwedel) didn’t squeeze me hard to join the company after college; it was an unspoken tacit agreement,” Joe said. “The day after I graduated from UofA, Dad handed me a sheet explaining my task ahead in Kingman. I never considered working anywhere else. I represent the third generation overseeing the family business.”
Joe bloomed further to become publisher and CEO of the family’s weekly newspaper, the Lake Havasu City Herald, in 1975.
“Looking back on my career… it’s been a heck of a ride,” he said recently. “And it’s not over yet.
“Dad and Mom – who both lived through the Great Depression – used to preach about treating people right. One reason being ‘you might wake up tomorrow and learn that we’re broke.’”
Joe said the family still believes in the relevance and viability of community newspapers. Proof of that was seen earlier this year with WNI purchasing 50% of the assets of newspapers in Wickenburg and Bullhead City, Arizona, as well as in Laughlin, Nevada, and Needles, California. The other 50% is owned by long-time partner Wick Communications. Wick is also a family-owned media company, based out of Sierra Vista, Arizona.
As for Joe, he officially took the reins of WNI in 1983.
He said his most illuminating experience was as CEO in Lake Havasu City. “I was 22 when I took over a newspaper in a town where everyone was from somewhere else, especially not from Arizona. I wasn’t ready for the role and got schooled daily by the townspeople.
“I threw away my college textbook on management. I started believing that being screamed at daily was something to look forward to. By the time I moved to Yuma, at age 25, I was better prepared.”
Milestones
The family-owned corporation has seen many breakthroughs, beginning with promoting women to top management roles, such as with Kit Atwell in 1987. She retired at the end of 2021 as publisher of Prescott Newspapers, Inc.
Joe’s milestones include that he is “still here on the job in my seventh decade of service for WNI – 40 years running the company.”
He added that WNI remains vibrant and healthy “in this wild and crazy media environment,” enduring seven economic recessions since 1974.
His only regret: “On a personal note, allowing myself to get into a situation in which I was nearly poisoned to death.”
Poison
As previously reported in the Courier, Joe received lab test results in June 2017 confirming he had been poisoned at lethal levels.
“The thallium definitely caused permanent damage – double vision at a distance, partially numb right hand, half of my lung tissue destroyed. Meaning, I function on one lung. My current lung function is at its peak, (about) 55%. I tested just over 30% in summer 2017,” he said.
“The past six years has been a difficult slog, but well worth it. Emotionally, it’s critical for someone in my situation not to lug around a backpack full of anger, resentment and frustration. Doing so will kill someone faster than the side effects of poisoning.”
The testing was conducted by Carlson Company, a forensics toxicology and DNA diagnostics company in Westminster, Colorado. From hair samples, and later fingernail shavings, Carlson did a heavy metals test as well as a look for thallium. The first hair test, which excluded thallium, revealed lethal levels of lithium, plus a host of other metals and ingredients commonly found in rat poison. Subsequent hair testing for thallium showed extremely deadly levels.
Basically, Joe had six times the acceptable level for lithium and 16 times for thallium.
The lab also tested dental floss, resulting in 21 toxins including uranium, arsenic and mercury; the lining of a pair of Justin boots, coated with vaginal cream; a leather wallet, soaked in meth; and a leather handle on a piece of luggage, covered in a plasticizer (used in vinyl flooring).
Not like he needed more challenges, Joe contracted Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) in September 2019.
“I was misdiagnosed three times in September 2019 as having shingles before receiving a correct diagnosis around Oct. 9,” he related. “I was airlifted from Yuma to Phoenix’s Barrow (Neurological Institute) where I spent the next three weeks.”
He came within a few days of dying, according to Barrow doctors.
“I had to learn how to walk again, (and) yes, I have permanent damage: one-third of my right hand is numb.”
His naturopath, Dr. Robert Milisen, believes Joe got GBS because his nervous and immune systems had been compromised by the numerous poisons he ingested from 2013 through 2017.
Does he have concerns that new medical problems might pop up, caused by all the toxins? “Definite concerns. But most of us 71-year-olds worry about waking up tomorrow with everything in working order.”
Joe’s therapy, recovery and recuperation has included chelation therapy, which involves special drugs that bind to metals in your blood; “My attackers hit me mainly with heavy metals,” he said, adding that he began with about eight chelation treatments a month; “now it’s once a month in Prescott. … I plan to continue monthly as long as I live.”
He also has undergone “cocoon” booster shots; CPAP therapy to help with sleep; quit drinking alcohol and smoking; moved to a lower elevation (Yuma) to assist with breathing; and adopted a steady mild exercise program.
“I cannot run, meaning no more tennis; picked up golf,” said Joe, who also avoids over-exerting himself. “The goal is to maximize the one lung I have left.
“Naturopathic doctors have been much more helpful and insightful and open than the traditional Western, or allopathic, doctors.”
Movie
One project he took on, which provided a distraction as well as therapy of its own, was producing the full-length Hollywood film, “SPIKED,” which was released in March 2021.
It is the movie, based on true events, about the murder of a migrant worker that shakes a Southwest border town to its core; a feud between a newspaper owner and the chief of police leads to the blurring of the truth and a dirty fight for justice.
The movie stars Aidan Quinn, and one of its themes is poisoning.