Editor’s Column – Herald health update

One of the things we’ve committed to following our recent financial crisis is something we’re always harping on our local governments and special districts to do: be transparent, especially about finances. It’s in that vein I write this week’s column.

First, some history for those of you who are new around here and for those who’ve forgotten the tale. In the late 1990s, Rangely had a newspaper of its own, the Rangely Times, owned by Bernard Yaeger. When Mr. Yaeger passed away, there was no succession plan for the Rangely Times. This continues to be a challenge for small, family-owned newspapers, as owners prepare for retirement only to find no one standing in line to keep the presses running. 

No one in Rangely, nor Yaeger’s children, wanted to take on the responsibility of continuing Rangely’s newspaper. Peg Rector reached out to then-owners of the Meeker Herald, the Troesters, who agreed to purchase the orphaned paper. For several years, they produced two separate papers with different front pages. It was not a popular change, evidenced by weeks of angry letters to the editor that sounded a lot like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial… “you got your Meeker news in my Rangely paper” and “your Rangely news is in my Meeker paper.” 

Troesters sold both papers to Kerry and Joy Murdock of Grand Junction, who merged the two into one edition, the Rio Blanco Herald Times. The merger brought a whole new spate of angry comments and letters. In the early 2000s, the Town of Rangely began selling advertising on the back of its utility bills and newspaper advertising from the west side began a precipitous decline. For the past several years, Rangely has generated 3% of the paper’s income from all sources, while we’ve continued trying to provide news coverage for both communities.

We’ve mostly disappointed ourselves. It’s a catch-22. There’s not enough money to hire a full-time, boots-on-the-ground staff reporter and advertising sales rep for Rangely (which it needs if it’s to have the kind of coverage it should have), and there’s not enough time or energy for us to stretch ourselves any thinner than we already are. 

Back to that financial transparency thing: the overwhelming contributions to the #SaveTheHerald campaign in the last three weeks reflect the same pattern in income. 97% of the contributions are from Meeker. And for that, once again, we cannot possibly thank the Meeker community enough. We are committed to serving the people who have gone above and beyond to keep this institution alive, and that’s what we intend to do. 

That leads us to some of the necessary changes we’re making to stay afloat. If a boat keeps taking on water, you have to find the holes and fix them, or you risk sinking. One of the obvious holes is cutting the number of print copies that go to stores and racks. Another is the cost of sending a driver to Rangely and Dinosaur with print copies. Subscriptions will remain the same and new subscribers are welcome. You can call us at 970-878-4017, or set up a subscription through our much-improved website at ht1885.com.

 The third hole is balancing editorial coverage with paid advertising. This has been a struggle since the Herald and the Times were merged.

There are assuredly more holes to plug and changes to make, but those are the torpedo-sized ones. In short, there are two sides to the newspaper business: advertising and editorial. We’ve been out of balance for awhile, and now it’s time to “right the ship.”