Kuhns has made a mark in the newspaper publishing world as a lawyer and advisor to The Washington Post and its publisher Katharine Graham, and later as chairman of a group of newspapers in New England. Kuhns got his start in journalism at Central as the editorial page editor of The Register his senior year. After obtaining a law degree at Yale, he combined his love of the law and newspapers by becoming a media law specialist for a Washington D.C. law firm. In that role, he advised the Post during the newspaper’s Watergate investigation. After he served as outside counsel through the seventies, the Post named him an executive on the paper’s business side. Kuhns at various times was in charge of new ventures for the newspaper and oversaw its electronic publishing and syndicated publishing operations. Fulfilling a lifelong desire to publish a paper, in 1993 he moved to New Hampshire where for 15 years he published The Valley News, a regional paper on the New Hampshire-Vermont border. Kuhns since 2008 has been chair of a chain of papers, a position he holds today. Kuhns has also been active in many charitable causes in his adopted home state.
John passed away in 2024 at the age of 77.