After 2 years, Godson had started to long to return home to Australia and so he started advertising to sell the paper. His ad would be seen by Charles L. Willis who was teaching school in Ontario, and would bring him to Alberta. Willis took over the Independent on June 15, 1908, and the name Willis would be synonymous with the Independent from that day until 1997 with the resignation of Alan Willis.

The Independent as well as the rapidly growing Town of Stettler, would suffer a major setback on October 13, 1908, when a fire spread through most of the northern end of town. After which, the Independent purchased the lot of the former Union Hotel, putting it on Alberta (50th) Avenue where it would spend most of it's existence until moving onto main street several decades later. Despite the destruction of the original building, and a massive blow to the community itself, the Independent did not miss an issue.

Over the years the newspaper industry would change slowly, but the Independent would always be one of the best equipped rural newspapers. Not only in the province of Alberta, but quite often their production capacity would put them in the top ranks of small town newspapers nation wide. Early printing was tedious work and involved many steps, most of which were either aided by human hands or completely done by hand. This included the 6 young women who were hired to set each printed character. Type was to be set backwards and upside down back then and there were storage bins with rows upon rows of lettering. The machine which the Independent used at the time could do up to 800 impressions an hour, and printed 2 pages at a time. Each issue would then have to be folded manually. The next step up came in 1910, with the purchase of a used Optimus press from the Lethbridge Herald. The newly aquired press, could print 4 pages at a time, was hand fed, and produce 1,300 impressions an hour. The folding was now done mechanically, but the machine was often temperamental.

The Independent's Linotype machine purchased in 1916 was one of the first used for rural newspapers. This machine used a keyboard input that would stamp the characters into a long band of paper. The paper was then decoded by a machine that would cast the type from hot metal. A single error would require the entire band to be re-typed. Staff at the paper would often feel the building rumble with the machine running in the basement. The printers who had to work with the machinery would be plagued by the machine gumming up in the winter when the pot bellied stove wouldn't produce enough heat and the inks and machine's oils would coagulate in the cold. Even the summer brought it's own problems with the static in the dry air causing the pages to stick together, and foul up the smooth operations of the machine.

The fire of 1952, strangely taking place in the month of October like the one in 1908, would see a new chapter in the printing capabilities of the weekly paper. Such improvements to the printing operations included type casters, automatic job presses, and even an engraver for photos.

The dedication and spirit of the newspaper, was clearly evident in it's editor and publisher Mr. C.L. Willis who wrote editorials for the paper until his passing on May 10, 1956. At that point his son Roy W. Willis, who had been working at the paper for several years, took over his father's post as editor and publisher.

Over the years the Linotype machine and the various support equipment would change from different models, and design, each one keeping the Independent not only current, but often ahead of it's time. One of the largest evolutions of the printing center of the Independent was in 1962 when the paper bought a Cox-O-Type automatic press from the Grande Prairie Herald. The $17,000 purchase was considered quite the sum at the time, but gave the Independent a machine capable of printing 8 page sections off a roll of paper, and would deliver the product folded at the end of the process.

The Stettler Independent, much like the town, and the people, moved, and changed with the times. And even though Roy W. Willis had expected the Cox-O-Type machine to be the last major capital purchase that would carry the family run paper for several years, the computer age was fast approaching, and major changes would take place. So by the time the '70's were well under-way, the Cox-O-Type was salvaged, the Linotype machine was moved to the Independent display at the Stettler Museum, and a new era in newspaper production was brought in. This time with computers, keyboards, and a horizontal camera. And by 1980 after a massive re-tooling of their equipment, the Independent was equal to the capacity of a small daily paper.

How the Independent operated, would not be the only major change. In the early 1990's, ownership of the town's long-running paper had been sold to Trinity Holdings. This would be followed a few years later by the resignation of Alan Willis in 1997. Alan and his brother Bob had, like their father before them, been part of the Independent staff for years, and had each taken post-secondary classes aimed at the newspaper business. Bob had gotten his Bachelor of Commerce and Alan was ticketed in graphic design.

The Stettler Independent continues to provide a reliable uninterrupted service to the people, and businesses in the town of Stettler, and the communities that surround it. The town has changed, the people have changed, and most certainly the media itself has changed, but there is no doubt about it. The Stettler Independent is a part of this town.