COEUR d'ALENE - Kiki Miller started working for the Coeur d'Alene Press when she was still in high school.

"It was 1977 and it was my first job interview," she said. "I was sitting right here in this room, and Bruce Blackwell called me into the interview.

"He said in this big booming voice: 'Kiki Miller, who has a name like Kiki Miller? Get in here."

She had applied for a front desk receptionist job, but Blackwell put her in charge of telemarketing instead. She started right after the interview and was selling newspaper subscriptions over the phone.

Miller worked her way up to insert machine operator, and many other jobs, but she was never employed in the editorial department.

She eventually was charged with helping to set up the circulation system for the North Idaho News Network, which included the Shoshone News-Press and the Bonner County Daily Bee, as well as handful of weekly newspapers.

In the mid-1990s, Miller joined forces with Ric Clarke, David Kilmer and Gretchen Burning to start a weekly business newspaper called the Business Record, where she managed sales and distribution.

The paper competed directly with the North Idaho Business Journal and eventually folded after six issues.

At that point, Miller focused her time on her small publishing business, Kagey Company, which she still operates now.