On January 28th, 2022, The Dallas Morning News reported on the purchase of a local, suburban metroplex group of weekly newspapers, stating, "Instead of a trip to Hawaii to celebrate 25 years together, Rick and Elizabeth Rogers bought a community newspaper company.” That company is Star Local Media, a community publishing group based in the affluent northeast suburb of Plano, Texas, that prints 14 community newspapers across cities in Denton, Collin, and Dallas counties, with some titles more than 100 years old.

Rick Rogers is not unknown to most in the news publishing business, with his most recent job as Chief Revenue Officer at TownNews. His previous life offered 25 years of editorial, publishing and management experience with corporate roles at ACM and Gatehouse Media in Missouri and Texas.

Rick and his wife Elizabeth have resided for the past 11 years in Frisco — a market served by Star Local Media with the Frisco Enterprise, making them both quite familiar with the communities they serve.

In this 150th episode of "E&P Reports," we go one-on-one with a longtime industry veteran and recent CRO of TownNews. Rick Rogers' journey from serving media companies as a vendor to becoming owner/ publisher of the Dallas suburban weekly newspaper group, Star Local Media, is highlighted. He talks frankly about why he chose to invest in local media, how he and his wife/ partner Elizabeth are facing the challenges of news publishing in today’s challenging marketplace and how his 1st quarter P & L fared.