In my own personal research, I use the newspaper archive at the Quincy, Illinois Public Library website. One of the search operators is "near" which allows me to specify how close my search terms need to be. If the search terms are ones that form a name, they need to be within a few words of each other.
The site allows me to search entering the <NEAR/3>, where the search term before and after the near have to be within 3 words of each other. The search for "James <NEAR/3> Rampley" (without the quotes) would most likely find all references to James Rampley, James R. Rampley, James Riley Rampley, Rampley James," etc.
Sites that don't have firstname lastname searches may allow the use of the "near" operator. Check out the help or FAQ of the site you are using for more information.
I've found this newspaper collection to be very interesting in my Ertel family research. Unfortunately, my ancestors didn't make the news. George Ertel, manufacturer of the Victor Hay Press and other agricultural items did. He came from the same town (Neuburg am Rhein) as my family, but kinship cannot be determined due to loss of early records.
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