In 1952, Arthur and Morley Ballantine wanted to enter the news publishing industry, and they picked southwest Colorado as the place to do it — purchasing a publication that is now the Durango Herald.

Over the years, the company expanded, adding new titles, video services, digital services, and local phone directories to its publishing empire. And today, their son, Richard G. Ballentine is chairman of the board of Ballantine Communications, continuing a mission of serving the readers and businesses of the region.

Recently, the company announced it was opening offices and hiring staff just 60 miles away, in Farmington, New Mexico, to start a brand new, free tabloid called the Tri-City Record that will print five days a week.

Farmington has a population of 46,000+ and is the largest city in San Juan County (population 120,000). The city has been served by its newspaper of record, The Farmington Daily Times, for over 120 years. However, today that Gannett publication might be labeled by some as a “ghost paper,” having dropped their staff numbers to a single reporter to work and serve the entire area.

Ballantine initially explored the venture by bringing in the owner of the nearby Aspen (CO) Times, David Cook. Cook worked as a consultant, meeting business leaders, evaluating reader acceptance and making recommendations on the project's viability. It was later agreed that Cook would manage the New Mexico operation for Ballantine as the Record’s new publisher.

In a recent interview, Cook stated, "Forget about state lines. There’s no question that the Four Corners region has many economic tie-ins for sure.” Ballantine added to that sentiment, saying, "There are increasing connections between southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico in news topics and advertising needs.”

In response to why a new newspaper should enter an area that already has a newspaper in place for over a century, Cook stated, "There were some real gaps in the beat reporting. So I saw a real opportunity. San Juan is the fifth largest population center in New Mexico — and in my estimation … it was slowly becoming a news desert.”

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we explore the Tri-City Record, a new, five-day-a-week free publication serving San Juan County, New Mexico, being launched by Ballentine Communications, the owners of the Durango (CO) Herald. We learn from board chairman/ owner Richard G. Ballantine and new Record Publisher David Cook why they believe there is a real opportunity for expansion into this area already served by an existing Gannett title since that paper has drastically cut back on staff and content over the past few years.

For over 15 years, Mickey H. Osterreicher has served as general counsel to the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), where he helps support, train and advocate for First Amendment rights. Starting his journalism career in the 1970s, Mickey was a staff photojournalist as an undergraduate for his campus newspaper at the University of Buffalo. He later became an award-winning photojournalist whose work has been published and broadcast over the years by the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News and ESPN. Mickey returned to UB to get his law degree in 1998, where he served as an adjunct professor.

However, not only does Osterreicher have an extensive news media background, but he also wears a shield — serving for over 30 years as a reserve deputy for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. He was recognized as their ‘Reserve Deputy of the Year’ in 2017.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) honored Osterreicher in 2015 as a “Fellow of the Society,” the highest professional honor given by the SPJ. And in 2021, he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Today, most of Mickey's time revolves around training journalists and police officers about how to respect the 1st Amendment and generally get along better since both perform necessary work, usually in close proximity, especially during times of crime and crises. 

In the recent May 2023 E&P Cover Story: “The shifting balances of press powers. While First Amendment champions work to affirm the free press, others seek to undermine it,” Osterreicher stated, “(Saying) ‘I know my rights’ to a police officer today — whether you’re covering a news event, or a demonstration or protest — is often the last sentence you say before they order you to turn around and put your hands behind your back."

Mickey also shares the same concerns as many leaders in our industry about the blurred lines of defining who is a journalist in today’s multiplatform, social media-driven news ecosystem. Osterreicher stated,  “When I was a journalist, it was pretty obvious. I was the noob with three Nikon SLRs around my neck, and nobody else had a camera. Or when I was in television, and I had a big Beta camera on my shoulder and press credentials,” he recalled. “Now, you’ve got young folks who are being sent out — whether they’re reporters or photographers — with iPhones. They look the same as the protesters.”

In this episode of “E&P Reports,” we go one-on-one with National Press Photographers Association (NPPA)’s general counsel, Mickey Osterreicher, to gain some advice on how both the news industry and the nation's law enforcement can work better together to respect the 1st Amendment, while each goes about their tough jobs during times of crime and crises. We also chat with him about his perspectives on helping define who a journalist is, especially now, as so many citizens are recording news on their personal devices.

The daily Portland Press Herald and its statewide sister publication Maine Sunday Telegram were, for over a century, the leading news and information providers to residents of Maine. Based in the state's largest city of Portland, these two major newspapers were the cornerstones of Guy Gannett Communications. This Maine-based family-owned business also owned a handful of television stations.

In 1998, Guy Gannett decided to sell the entire company, with the newspaper holdings eventually purchased by the owners of The Seattle Times, the fourth generation of the Blethen family. Ten years later, during the 2008 recession, these titles began a journey of cutbacks and downsizing like so many other media companies. And, citing economic concerns, the Blethens announced they were putting the Press Herald and its other Maine newspaper properties up for sale.

The next seven years, the newspapers went through two controversial ownership changes — eventually finding themselves in 2015 in the hands of Maine-based publisher Reade Brower, who consolidated the holdings, brought in new senior management and, by all accounts, "righted the ship." Brower kept these iconic news media brands alive until recently when he announced his intention to sell all the media holdings — now under the corporate name of “Masthead Maine.”

And that is where today's story begins, where a handful of Maine-based, retired news media execs have come together in hopes of keeping their home as it is today — the only state in the U.S. that does not have one newspaper owned by an out-of-state, corporate media empire.

One of those retirees is a locally well-known, longtime columnist for the Press Herald, Bill Nemitz, who leads a group that includes the recently retired president and CEO of Graham Media Group, Emily Barr. Together they serve on the board of directors for the new Maine Journalism Foundation (MaineJF). This nonprofit organization's mission is to "Preserve and nurture Maine’s reputation as a bastion for independent local news.”

MaineJF seems to be moving now in over-drive, working quickly to assemble a group of local and national donors to acquire $15 million in hopes of purchasing Masthead Maine from Reade Brower and turning it into a nonprofit, statewide news operation, similar to others E&P has reported on such as The Baltimore Banner and The Salt Lake City Tribune.

Nemitz recently penned an editorial for the Portland Press Herald, outlining the two major reasons why the MaineJF is working to take over these titles and save them from outside ownership. He wrote, "First, we've all seen what happens when venture capital firms — the predominant for-profit buyers of local newspapers these days — swoop into a market seeking only instant payback on their investment. Real estate and other hard assets get liquidated. Newsrooms get decimated. News — from the workings of local government to the drama of high school sports — goes unreported. And just like that, readers like you are left in the dark. In the timeless words of Joni Mitchell, 'Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone.'"

Nemitz then goes on to argue that MaineJF’s goal is to turn the media company into a nonprofit entity, stating, "(As) a nonprofit, we exist solely to enhance the journalism, to enlighten our communities, to enrich the public square with real facts, with informed analysis and, most fundamentally in this age of 'fake news' and disinformation, with the truth."

In this 187th episode of "E&P Reports," we chat with two of the founding board members of the new Maine Journalism Foundation (MaineJF). This organization is racing to raise $15 million to purchase and keep the now-for-sale Masthead Maine out of corporate hands. Masthead Maine is a locally-owned, statewide media company publishing 23 newspapers. In this episode are MaineJF president and well-known retired local journalist Bill Nemitz and board member and Maine resident Emily Barr, who recently retired as the president & CEO of Graham Media Group.

A recent Gallup/Knight Foundation study revealed, "Only 26% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the news media, the lowest level since Gallup and Knight began tracking in 2017.”  But this study also suggests: "Many Americans are not solely skeptical of news today — they feel distrust on an emotional level, believing news organizations intend to mislead them and are indifferent to the social and political impact of their reporting.”

The main takeaway from the study may be that it states: “Emotional trust is more deeply rooted and is especially important to understand in the context of the news media. This study shows that emotional trust has a strong relationship to perceptions and behaviors that could harm the critical, mutually beneficial relationship between the health of the press and the health of U.S. democracy. The more emotional trust Americans have in the news, the more likely they are to say news organizations balance staying in business and serving the public well.”

These findings, published by Knight in February of 2023, help reaffirm the need for the news media industry to apply some form of self-directed standards to evaluate and score a news platform's level of credibility and trust.

One of the organizations that has been working towards this goal is the nonprofit, nonpartisan Trust Project, which defines itself as "a global network of news organizations working to affirm and amplify journalism's commitment to transparency, accuracy and inclusion." The method behind the scoring of a participating partner's news media platform is their eight Trust Indicators® which is "a collaborative, journalism-generated standard for news that helps both regular people and the technology companies’ machines easily assess the authority and integrity of news.”

As E&P has been reporting, the Trust Project has added media partners and "top line" funds to its spreadsheets, thanks to a recent $500,000 contribution from longtime supporter Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

The Trust Project operates as a consortium of top news companies led by founder and award-winning journalist Sally Lehrman. 

In this episode of "E&P Reports," Lehrman talks about the Trust Project's research of news consumers — called interview sets. Initial studies revealed that “many people work very hard to check and cross-check the news to be sure they can trust it. Others feel overwhelmed by the quantity of news. Still, others are frustrated and angry by what they feel is misrepresentation.” The Trust Project found out that “people wanted a lot more information about, as one interviewee put it, ‘how the story was built.” A summary of the project’s first round of interviews appears in Lehrman’s 2017 essay in The Atlantic: “What People Really Want From News Organizations.”

Lehrman goes on to say that more recent findings reveal that in 2020, everyone became more engaged with news, but there was a lot of anxiety as well. She stated, "(People) were upset about what they were reading in the news and anxious about it. They were worried that they'd heard about all the mis- and disinformation. They were worried that they would get fooled by it.”

Lehrman went on to say, "There's this middle group that I call the anxious middle who are ready and open for news they can trust. And it's just for us to walk into... In through the door that's open for us by them.”

In this 186th episode of “E&P Reports,” we explore the nonprofit, nonpartisan Trust Project as we chat one-on-one with its founder and CEO, Peabody Award-winning journalist Sally Lehrman, who talks about the organizations founding in 2014 and the methods they employ today to: "Help news organizations make it clear that we do have standards and policies and rules that help journalists walk this path of independence and away from any kind of personal agenda, business agenda, or government agenda.”

To those media executives that attend major conferences or keep their "ears to the ground" through industry news blogs and sites, Guy Tasaka is already well known as an expert and resource that many have followed to stay on top of technology and navigate the turbulent waters of the ever-changing media landscape.

Guy's innovative career spans decades as senior director of product management at WideOrbit, general manager of mobile at GateHouse Media, vice president and chief digital officer at Calkins Media, a sales and strategic leader at The New York Times, and most recently, the founding manager of the Google News Initiative (GNI) funded Local Media Association Technology Resource Center. Beginning this month, Guy has added another position to his LinkedIn profile: Technology Columnist for Editor & Publisher Magazine (E&P).

Guy's first assignment for E&P was to cover the world’s largest gathering (65,000+) of electronic media professionals and innovators — the 2023 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual convention in Las Vegas. His mission was to dissect the most important takeaways that could benefit the news publishing industry: "Three takeaways from NAB — In a period of disruption for broadcast, there are opportunities for newspapers.”

In this 185th episode of "E&P Reports," we chat with Editor & Publisher's new Technology Columnist, well-known media consultant Guy Tasaka about his recent report on the NAB 2023 annual convention to learn what the news publishing industry should know from the world's largest gathering of broadcast professionals.

According to a recent report from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, total giving from all sources in the U.S. rose from $124.31 billion in 1993 to just over $360 billion last year (2022). However, the report cites that the total giving figure has continued to track closely with the size of the U.S. economy, where the overall "giving " figure remained at roughly 2% of the national GDP over those 20 years.

What the report does show as a major shift is a change from total giving coming from individuals versus foundations, the giving coming from foundations rising significantly, from less than 7% in 1992 to nearly 19% of all giving today.

As more and more news publishers seek innovative sustainable new revenue models to offset the cost of their newsrooms, more and more money is becoming available to support local journalism through philanthropic entities. In this episode of E&P Reports, we explore "The Chronicle of Philanthropy" (CoP), a monthly magazine that covers the nonprofit world and is read by charity leaders, foundation executives, fundraisers, and others involved in philanthropy. The publication was founded in 1988 by Phil Semas and Stacy Palmer, who today is the editor. In May of 2022, CoP announced plans to spin off and become an independent, nonprofit organization that achieved its 501(c)(3) status in February of 2023  upon approval by the IRS.

In this one-on-one with CoP editor Stacy Palmer, we explore why the philanthropic world is becoming more interested in supporting local journalism and how we in the news media industry may be able to use our resources to help educate those in charge of giving. Palmer says:  ” (it’s) fascinating right now is to watch how much interest there is in the foundation world and among big donors about funding local journalism. Grant givers are very, very concerned about the fact that democracy is falling apart because we don't have strong journalism. So, we are covering that and watching that a lot.”

Palmer stated, " I think philanthropy is distressed by the fact that there just aren't resources for local journalism. So, they know that quality journalism isn't happening. For example, when people aren't going and covering the school boards, that is not a good thing. That means people aren't voting in a way that makes sense because they don't have any information. That's what motivates foundations to say, "I want to make sure there is somebody who can go and cover those kinds of things."

In this 184th episode of “E&P Reports,” we explore the world of philanthropy through the eyes of those who are in charge of where the money goes with The Chronicle of Philanthropy's editor Stacy Palmer who offers insights into the whys and hows big donors are motivated to support local journalism.

Imagine you are managing a downsized, metro, state capital newsroom. Within four weeks, your newsroom covers once-in-a-generation tornado devastation, a school shooting that takes the lives of six individuals, a legislature that expels two minority members erupting into a globally watched real-time protest, the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters that took nine lives at nearby Fort Campbell and the passage of several local and statewide anti-LBGTQ bills, one that bans the performance of drag shows. Additionally, you are assigning reporters, shooters, and editors while operating on a hybrid schedule where not all in your newsroom work within a single location. Finally, add to that the fact that your newsroom not only has to feed multi-platform, real-time content to your statewide audience, but you are also under a mandate to act as the regional hub for a national network with all their readers turning their attention to the community you report on.

Well, you don’t have to imagine what that single month of journalism would be like because that was the real-life scenario that the Tennessean Editor Michael Anastasi and his management team continue to experience in Nashville, TN.

In this 183rd episode of E&P reports, we speak with the newsroom management team of the Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessean and explore four weeks of their hectic world reporting on deadly tornadoes, a school shooting that took the lives of six people (including three children), the state legislature expelling two minority representatives and the subsequent protests, the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters along with having to report on various anti LBTGQ bill passages. We'll ask how they covered these stories in a downsized, hybrid newsroom environment while simultaneously feeding the USA Today Network. Appearing are Editor Michael Anastasi, News Director Ben Goad, Breaking News Editor Gary Estwick, Content Strategist and City Editor Liz Shoebauer, Politics and Investigation Editor Duane Gang, along with Director of Multimedia Projects Ayrik Whitney and Visuals Director Jeremy Harmon.

On April 5, 2019, Alec Johnson, the editor & publisher of The Waterville Times, the flagship publication of the Johnson Newspaper Corporation, of which he is also president, penned an editorial entitled “Readers think newspapers are doing fine: here’s the truth.”  Within the article, one can almost feel his frustrations, citing a Pew Research survey that stated 71% of Americans believed that local news media organizations were doing well financially, while just 14 percent said they have directly paid for "local news services.” Perhaps that article was intended as a “warning shot” to the readers within the communities his newspapers served; like many publishers, Johnson Newspapers could not continue financing his newsrooms at the same pace in a culture of declining circulation and advertising revenues.

In less than 60 days, on June 14, 2019, Johnson announced they were shutting down the only four newspapers that served the 100,000+ residents of St. Lawrence County, New York, which included the 100+-year-old Canton (NY) St. Lawrence Plain Dealer serving the county seat and the 160+-year-old Ogdensburg (NY) Journal, that served the largest city within St. Lawrence County.

For almost two years, these communities experienced what it was like to work, live and play within what we have labeled in our industry a "news desert," defined by Wikipedia as:

"a community that is no longer covered by a daily or nondaily newspaper." According to the June 2022 Northwestern University/ Medill study entitled "The State of Local News,"  more than one-fifth of Americans now live in an area with limited access to local news. Another study from the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) revealed, "The information vacuum left when communities lose dedicated news coverage can have wide-ranging effects." The study stated, "Without a source for local news, community members get most of their news from social media, leaving them vulnerable to mis- and disinformation and exacerbating political polarization.”

This special "E&P Reports," is part of the new initiative we call "The Local News Media Road Show,” produced in partnership with the Rebuild Local News Coalition, where we explore the local communities that have experienced the loss of local news coverage, and how the disappearance of local, authoritative, independent journalism has affected the residents, businesses and overall culture of the citizens who've lost their "voice." In this episode, we travel to St. Lawrence County, NY, where in June of 2019, the community lost all four local newspapers, causing businesses and citizens to rally together to help bring them back just two years later. Appearing in the broadcast are St. Lawrence County District 1 Legislator, Republican James Reagen andOgdensburg (NY) Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Laura Pearson. Also participating are the editors of the now revived Ogdensburg (NY) Journal and Canton (NY) St. Lawrence Plain Dealer.

There’s no question that Evening Post Publishing, owners of the Charleston Post and Courier (P&C), have been expanding their commitment to local journalism, while other media companies publishing in South Carolina have been downsizing their newsrooms. E&P initially reported in July of 2020 that the P&C had opened news operations in Greenville, where Gannett owned the legacy title, and in Myrtle Beach, a  McClatchy market.

And again, in June of 2022, E&P published a feature story on how even though 10 South Carolina newspapers had already shut down during a global pandemic, the Post & Courier had launched their "Uncovered" project, adding and assigning journalists to different state regions to cover.

But recently, as Executive Editor Autumn Phillips stated, "The Post and Courier has gone all-in by strategically expanding from a core market publication to a statewide newsroom. In each new community, we’ve incubated different models to identify the combination of funding and beat approaches that would lead to a long-term sustainable business and address growing news deserts in South Carolina.”

An example of this expansion is now in Florence, where Lee Enterprises owns the local newspaper. Here the P&C partnered with Francis Marion University to create a learning newsroom funded by donors and digital subscriptions. With these monies, the market is being served by an editor, a publisher, three reporters and six interns.

In total, The Post and Courier has added 27 new reporters working in Columbia, Rock Hill, and Hilton Head (McClatchy markets) and across three other newsrooms as part of this statewide expansion. Phillips stated: "These investments were made with the belief that in-depth reporting in markets hungry for local news will grow digital subscriptions to a level by 2025 that will fully fund the statewide news organization.”

In this 181st episode of E&P Reports, we “look under the hood” at the Charleston Post and Courier's tailor-made, market-by-market, statewide expansion and why, while others are downsizing, they are finding innovative ways to provide quality local journalism throughout South Carolina. Appearing on this broadcast are P&C Executive Editor Autumn Phillips and Chief Opportunity & Marketing Officer Chris Zoeller, along with PJ Browning, president newspaper division at Evening Post Publishing.

On its website, the Journalism Funding Partners (JFP) states a mission to “Increase the depth, diversity and sustainability of local journalism by building and stewarding connections between funders and news organizations.” Founded as a 501 (C)(3) in 2019 by the former publisher of the Raleigh News & Observer, Orage Quarles and internationally recognized reporter and senior consultant for the Democracy Fund, Sheila Solomon. JFP has secured and managed more than $5 million in grants to help support new and existing journalism coverage.

One of the funding projects that the JFP coordinated allowed for the Nashville Tennessean to create its first beat solely dedicated to covering local First Amendment issues. Thanks to these funds, Angele Latham has been winning national attention with her local reporting on the Sumner County (TN) governing board’s passage of an amendment declaring that the county would uphold “Judeo-Christian values.” Latham also was responsible for recent, in-depth coverage of current Tennessee laws passed that restrict “drag show” performances within the state.

Funds managed by JFP also helped create a new beat at the Raleigh News and Observer, centering on climate change and the environment, covered by reporter Adam Wagner. Wagner’s recent investigative series centering on “Big Poultry” exposed how the more than 4,600 state poultry farms that raise more than 1 billion chickens and turkeys each year impact more than 230,000 North Carolina residents to un-checked odor and manure, which has proven to cause illness and reduce property values. Recently Wagner and his Editor Bill Church won the 2023 Victor K. McElheny Award for local and regional science journalism from this series.

In this 180th episode of “E&P Reports," we speak with two reporters covering beats that exist today, thanks to the funding managed by Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). Appearing are the Nashville Tennessean’s first reporter to be focused solely on First Amendment issues, Angele Latham and the Raleigh News and Observer's new climate change and environment reporter Adam Wagner. Explaining how JFP was able to help create these and other new local journalism initiatives is executive director Rusty Coats.