When Sid Yudain came to Capitol Hill in 1951, he knew something was missing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuQ6b3G1yL0&feature=youtu.be

“I thought this place really needs a community newspaper,” the founder of Roll Call said during a 2011 interview. “Over the years I noticed that the national and local newspapers paid little attention to the people in Congress or the community. … As time went on, I thought that maybe we could use a newspaper, just devote it to the Congress.”

Yudain, who died Sunday at the age of 90, said “The Newspaper of Capitol Hill” began as a combination of a local newspaper, fan magazine, trade magazine and The New Yorker, but concentrated on the people and community of Congress. He said the paper never used to identify a person’s political party unless writing about a political event.

“We had local briefs, we had birthdays, we had people who caught a big fish, we’d have a picture, we had weddings, new staff people,” Yudain said. “And one of the things we got some criticism for was we ran a hill pin-up every week, and regardless of the criticism the congressmen loved it; that was the first thing they looked at in the paper.”