A year ago, a new media organization, El Rito Media, LLC, purchased Espanola’s Rio Grande SUN. A couple of months ago, El Rito purchased a second newspaper — the Artesia Daily Press. Not everyone welcomed El Rito’s entrance into the newspaper business, but that is a topic for another time.
The owners of El Rito are engaged in an experiment, and in 2022 they formed the company to conduct the experiment. Can a formula for the salvation of local community newspapers be derived?
In recent years many local newspapers in New Mexico have disappeared. Others are clearly in jeopardy. Some have been bought by national media organizations which virtually strip the “local” out of the newspaper. Yet, a local newspaper helps make a community, and strong communities are important to our state and nation.
It is from the local newspaper that residents learn of weddings and deaths, schools’ game results, traffic accidents, criminal activities, problems and successes at city hall, graduations, job openings — and much, much more. It is in the local newspaper that a community resident should be able to express a civil opinion and be educated by the opinions of others.
Why are local newspapers under duress? Many erstwhile readers, and potential readers, have become addicted to national social media and neglect local issues, or they get their local news through conversation or alternative media such as Facebook. Local newspaper readership dropped. Some local newspapers, particularly those purchased by national media companies, also restricted the expression of local opinion and in its place substituted opinion derived from national media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. Occasionally, local readers tired of this and canceled their subscriptions. Again, readership dropped.
Newspapers’ advertising revenue decreased when local businesses came under duress as their customer base was eroded by national firms such as Amazon. Many of these advertisers also were hurt by the pandemic. Consequently, they pulled back their expenditure of advertising dollars.
As readership and advertising revenue dropped, newspapers cut staff. Some reporters and other employees whose pay did not keep up with inflation left for more lucrative fields.
What is our formula? First, we are committed to the local. We want to produce a product that cannot be found elsewhere. We want our reporters to find news that is important to the local reader, to seek the truth, and to report the news in a well-written and unbiased fashion. We also are committed to being strong supporters of the community. We want to help bind the community together, and we want the community to do well. We will promote the community’s fiestas, ball games, graduations and successes, but also will point out the community’s warts. That is our job! We want the community to be a better community.
We consider our opinion page to be a public plaza where a variety of opinions on the same topic can be expressed. We welcome disagreement but we expect opinions to be expressed in a well-written and civil manner. We promote local opinion but occasionally we will enliven the plaza by publishing an opinion from a regional or national source related to a matter we believe is important to the community.
Can we do all this and also be sufficiently profitable to compensate our employees at a level that gives them a vested interest in the project? The answer to that depends in part on the commitment of the community, and businesses within it, to its newspaper. The experiment is in process.
Harvey Yates, Jr. is Managing Member of El Rito Media, LLC, owner of the Rio Grande SUN.