David Bradley Keeps Pace With Ever-Changing Media

David Bradley (’64) is an innovator.

His career has taken him around the globe and back home to Pleasanton, Kansas. Over the course of his career, Bradley transformed that sleepy farming town into the hub of his many media ventures.

Bradley grew up immersed in the media and publishing world. His father ran and operated The Observer Enterprise, the newspaper in Pleasanton. He learned the printing trade at a young age by working with his father.

“Dad and about three other people and me just worked everyday,” Bradley said of his early work experience.

From a young age, Bradley was heavily interested in journalism and the media.

“I applied (to Ole Miss) because of the reputation of Dr. [Samuel] Talbert.”

Bradley remained active in the journalism school during his time at Ole Miss, and worked with The Daily Mississippian. He also joined ROTC, a four-year program, as an information officer. In his junior year, Bradley met Charlene Strickland, whom he would marry shortly after graduation. Bradley graduated as an officer and he was sent to Vietnam to provide field reporting.

After months hopping between Vietnamese cities, Bradley returned stateside and finished his years of service at Air Force Lt. Gen. Sam Maddux Jr.’s side. He wrote speeches and “mapped VIP tours.”

After his term of service, Charlene and Bradley bought a mobile home in 1968 and moved to Pleasanton. Bradley said his father never tried to lure him back to Kansas. He and Charlene made the decision on their own.

Bradley’s father died soon after they moved back, and Bradley quickly went to work learning to run the family paper. After several years, Bradley expanded circulation by buying two neighboring papers and forming the Linn County News. This conglomerate became one of the largest-circulation weekly newspapers in the state of Kansas.

One day on a quail hunt, a friend told Bradley about a successful company that printed cookbooks. Shortly after, Bradley was able to make a simple purchase that grew into a large-scale cookbook-selling and -printing enterprise.

The cookbook business was so successful that in the mid-1970s Bradley sold his newspaper.

As time went on and the media world evolved, Bradley had to adjust as well.

“During the late ’70s and early ’80s, we tested many types of production equipment, trying to make publishing cookbooks as efficient as possible with as few employees as possible,” Bradley said.

In addition to developing and using new techniques for efficient paper production, Bradley opened an office in Kansas City. The tiny job market in Pleasanton wasn’t suitable for Bradley’s booming business.

“In the early ’90s, we started feeling the stress to keep the cookbook production growing, mainly because of the Internet’s gaining strength and recipes placed on the web,” Bradley said.

Fundcraft Publishing, Bradley’s firm, hired two programmers to keep up with the competition and increase the web presence. At that point, Chris, Bradley’s son, became involved with the company. He had graduated from Ole Miss with a focus in marketing and technology in 1994.

“Things just fell in place after Ole Miss,” Chris said. “With a marketing degree, along with a lot of background in computers and print, it was a natural direction to morph Fundcraft into one of the first self-publishing companies on the internet.”

It was Chris’s idea to create Instant Publisher to publish authors’ books directly online. Since then, Fundcraft has grown larger and reached more people than ever, both online and through print. Fundcraft has owned 17 internet domain names since the mid- ’90s, which are now valuable parts of the company. Fundcraft publishes thousands of recipes on
these sites now.

Instant Publisher has published Meek School, the alumni magazine of the school, annually at a generous discount and the depth reports, said Will Norton, Jr., dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

“We owe Fundcraft and Mr. Bradley a great deal,” Norton said.

Bradley’s triumphant story of a young man from small-town Kansas achieving success in the media world is a testament to a confident and aggressive attitude. He attributes this successful career to his willingness to try different ideas.

“You’ve got to take some chances,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of things that didn’t work, but you’ve got to get out there. Some things are going to hit, and some things aren’t.”

Bradley’s greatest piece of advice is to try new things and keep up with the times.

“I like to try new things, even today, good or bad, but one thing for sure: I love new print-machine technologies,” he said.

Chris Bradley shares his father’s passion for hard work and for trying out new ideas.

“Changes happen quickly in the real world,” he said. “You must be aware of the changing environment and stay on top of all forms of media and technology, including those that are thought to be outdated.”

Chris said the greatest lesson he’s learned from his father is that “you can achieve anything you really want as long as you’re willing to work for it.”

Slade Rand is a sophomore, integrated marketing communications major from New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Meek School Magazine is a collaborative effort of journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications students with the faculty of Meek School of Journalism and New Media. Every week, for the next few weeks, HottyToddy.com will feature an article from Meek Magazine, Issue 4 (2016-2017).

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