E&P Reports with Mike Blinder

In June of, 2021, U.S. Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Arizona, and Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, introduced H.R. 3940, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act (LJSA), a bipartisan bill designed to help local newspapers sustain financial viability through a series of tax credits..

The LJSA was originally the brainchild of Arizona-based Francis Wick, CEO of Wick Communications and fellow news publisher Alan Fisco, President of the Seattle Times, who each, along with support from America's Newspapers, lobbied their local congress members, to introduce the bill that was hoped to provide some needed financial assistance to help abate the widespread proliferation of newspaper shutdowns nationwide.

For months the LJSA was debated and modified with hopes that its passage would become a reality. Its closest chance came In November of 2021, with the modified, stripped-down version that only offered tax credits for hiring and retaining journalists. H.R. 390 was then included in the draft text of the Biden Administration's Build Back Better reconciliation package. But the LJSA was not to be; last-minute lobbying by Big Tech and others squashed the bill, "pushing it to the curb" for possible resurrection in the next Congress.

Now, a new piece of legislation, which offers tax incentives to both local news media that employ journalists and the local businesses that help support the media outlet through their advertising dollars, has surfaced as the Community News and Small Business Support Act (H.R.4756). The new bill was introduced on Thursday, July 20, 2023, by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA).

At its core, H.R. 4756 lays out a five-year plan to provide payroll tax credits to local/community news outlets expressly to hire and retain local news reporters across the country. Small businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees) that advertise in local newspapers, digital news sites, on local radio or with local T.V. stations are also eligible for tax credits.

In this episode of E&P Reports, we go one-on-one with one of the key players in helping champion tax incentive-based legislation through the U.S. Congress, Dean Ridings, CEO of America's Newspapers, one of North America's largest news media trade organizations. Ridings offers a quick history of the new Community News and Small Business Support Act (H.R.4756), a bill designed to help sustain local journalism through tax breaks for those who pay newsroom salaries and small businesses who support local journalism through their advertising dollars. Ridings also speaks frankly about the chances of eventual passage of the bill and what each local news publisher can do to help make it happen.

Brock Berry has spent the last two decades as an advertising and marketing leader in the news media industry during what many call the "digital revolution." Just as more and more news consumers were accessing local content online, Berry found his comfort with digital concepts a vital asset as he became the head of the advertising sales department at the Denver Post. And when that major market newspaper underwent ownership changes, he found himself designing and leading the parent company's digital services division, Digital First Media's AdTaxi Network.

Today, Berry is the founder and CEO of AdCellerantx, a Denver-based digital advertising and technology company that partners with hundreds of media companies and agencies in markets across North America to provide a complete menu of digital solutions to tens of thousands of local businesses.

Since starting AdCellerant in 2011, the company experienced over 4,000% growth — from zero to over $75 million in revenue in less than three years. Because of its success, Inc. Magazine recognized it as the 83rd fastest-growing company in the US.

Berry also is a business and technology columnist for Newsweek and was named CEO of the year by the Colorado Technology Association and top "40 under 40" by the Denver Business Journal.

In this Episode of "E&P Reports," we explore the challenges in selling digital solutions to small businesses in a competitive marketplace with senior executive, entrepreneur and media advertising expert Brock Berry, CEO and founder of AdCellerant. Utilizing Berry's real-world experience leading a major technology company providing digital solutions to hundreds of local media companies for thousands of businesses, we gain his insights on the most effective ways we can serve, sell and maintain local advertising revenue through the sale of all forms of multimedia solutions. Berry also offers his advice to local advertising executives on how to build a winning local sales environment.

Some might say that one of the most important dates to affect the future of the North American local news media industry was June 22, 2023. On that day, Canada's Senate passed Bill C-18, a law requiring Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Many pundits are now blogging and editorializing about the upside and downside of C-18's passage and how it will likely impact pending similar legislation currently being discussed in committee in the U.S. Senate. The 2023 Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) — a law very similar to Canada's — will allow small and mid-sized news organizations to negotiate jointly for compensation from digital platforms that access their content without allowing them to profit from their journalism. The legislation (like C-18) also allows news publishers to demand arbitration if they reach an impasse in negotiations with digital platforms.

And if anyone doubts how important this ruling is to Big Tech, just look at what happened almost immediately once C-18 became law. Two days after passage, Meta announced it would end access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada. And a few days after that, Google's president of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, announced in a blog that it would remove links to Canadian news from Search, News and Discover products and would no longer operate Google News Showcase in Canada. Not to be topped, shortly after Google and Facebook's actions, the Canadian government announced they would stop buying ads on Facebook and Instagram in return.

To offer some background, the Canadian local news media industry has experienced some of the same significant challenges their U.S. counterparts have in maintaining "top line" revenues impacted by digital disruption. Jobs, homes and cars, the three main "pillars" of the classified advertising category, have virtually disappeared from newspapers over the last 10 years. Inserts, and pre-press, which used to be a huge revenue stream for news publishers, are no longer being placed within the printed newspaper for local distribution, as major retailers prefer less expensive online couponing and digital loyalty programs.

But there's no question that, just like in the U.S., Canadian news publishers have lost the lion's share of local advertising dollars to platforms like Google and Facebook, which garner a good deal of their audience through the news content they access for free from the local news media, and then monetize it.

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we look at the last few weeks in the life of Canadian news publishing through the eyes of Paul Deegan, president and CEO of the country's largest industry trade organization, News Media Canada. Deegan unpacks the similarities and differences between Canada and the U.S. in national advocacy of Big Tech compensation legislation. He also discusses the battles that are now going on between Google /Facebook and the Canadian government as the digital platforms threaten to remove news content within the country, and Ottawa fights back by pulling ad dollars from the platforms.

Each year, Borrell Associates, an advertising and marketing research firm with customers across the U.S. and Canada, surveys local advertisers and ad agencies. Participants are invited through the active advertiser lists of various media companies nationwide.

Although companies would need to purchase the local results for their individual markets, Borrell does release to the industry several insights and predictions garnered from the aggregate results.

This week Borrell released the findings of the spring 2023 survey that included 1,938 respondents from more than 100 different business categories. These participating local advertisers from communities across the U.S. responded to over 35 questions concerning the types of media they purchase, plan to purchase, plan to discontinue and how they decide on and perceive the effectiveness of the many advertising solutions available in today's multimedia landscape.

Most are "optimistic" and plan to increase their advertising spend.In this episode of "E&P Reports," we asked Corey Elliott, Borrell's Executive Vice President of Local Market Insights, to unpack the most important data points that impact the news publishing industry uncovered from the survey. During the 20-minute interview with E&P Publisher Mike Blinder, Elliott offered the following significant findings, that included that even though recent political polls show a major concern from most as to the future of the American economy, most of the respondents said they are "optimistic" about their business's economic future, with 62% stating they plan to spend more on advertising in 2023.

Social media, events and radio advertising leadLeading the list of the top advertising solutions purchased is "social media," with 60% of the respondents claiming they invest their dollars in these various platforms. 49% said they participate in events and sponsorships to generate new customers.

Radio led the list of legacy media options coming in third, with 47% saying they buy broadcast commercials on a local station. However, when Elliot was asked why such a vulnerable media is so dominant when it is being impacted by competitive mobile audio streaming options for local listeners, his response implied that radio was the last to have its audience impacted by digital competition, giving the industry more time to prepare for the disruption to come. He also revealed that radio advertising retention showed ominous signs within the data, with only 6% of survey respondents stating they would be increasing their spending. And 12% said they were dropping radio from their 2023 marketing plans.

Newspaper advertising spend is holding its ownElliott broke down the results concerning printed newspaper advertising revealing that print came in with a respectable 6th position on the ad spend category list, with 39% of the respondents stating they purchase space in local newspapers. The good news for these publishers is that the retention numbers for this media are almost the reverse of radio, with 24% of newspaper advertisers stating they will stay or increase their investment and only 12% claiming they will drop the media.

Advertisers need helpElliott was adamant during the interview that one of the most critical insights revealed by the data Borrell collected and analyzed is that local advertisers are lost when it comes to a strong understanding of how to invest their marketing dollars. But instead of seeking advice and building a relationship with the local media ad representative (or advertising agency), 39% claimed they are resigned to learning how to do it themselves, with over one-third stating they would seek a friend, network contact, employee, or co-worker for assistance.

But when the same question was asked of those respondents who purchase advertising from a local newspaper company, the data revealed even less sense that local media ad reps have the knowledge and ability to supply them with multimedia marketing guidance, with 45% learning on their own and close to 40% from friends and co-workers. When Elliott unpacked these findings for E&P during the interview, he stated: "I swear to God, it's less about the media and more about the marketing. If you can provide me with a transparent, complete marketing plan, I'll follow you off a cliff!"

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we unpack the latest data from the Borrell Associates 2023 Local Advertising Survey with Borrell EVP Corey Elliott. We get a first look and analysis at the reported types of media being purchased and how local advertisers decide on and perceive the effectiveness of the many advertising solutions available in today's multimedia landscape.

Danielle Coffey's first ew weeks as the News/Media Alliance (NMA) chief executive were anything but "business as usual." After being appointed the new president and CEO of this leading trade organization, representing over 2,000 news and magazine media outlets worldwide, some of the most critical issues and advocacy concerning Western news media's future required immediate attention. That list includes Gannett's recent stand-alone antitrust filing against Google; Canada's final passage of the Canadian Journalism Compensation Bill, which will require big-tech companies like Google & Facebook to pay news organizations for the content they monetize; and how this may impact the U.S. Congress passing laws that would offer similar compensation to American news outlets. In addition, the congressional support of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act (LJSA) has reemerged — legislation that would help fund local journalism via tax incentives to publishers for salaries, businesses who invest in advertising support and even the news consumers for any fees or subscriptions, paid to access the content created by local newsrooms.

And if that slate of issues is not enough to keep the NMA staff working overtime, add to the pile the expanding concern by both readers and publishers with the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how the creation of news content via algorithms without human intervention, is amplifying the already existing fears of how truth can be maintained in the multimedia news ecosystem.

Luckily, Coffey is no novice when it comes to understanding the challenges of the business of creating credible, journalistic news within a sustainable business model since her promotion to NMA CEO came from within, having previously held the position of Executive Vice President and General Counsel since 2015, when the organization operated under the name of The Newspaper Association of America.

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we go one-on-one with the new President/ CEO of the News/Media Alliance (NMA), Danielle Coffey, with a high-speed interview that gains her perspective on some of the most critical legislative issues the news publishing industry is facing today, like "big tech" compensation, local journalism tax credits, AI and more. Coffey offers a frank, well-researched background and analysis of where the industry stands today and how she is leading the NMA to help us all navigate these challenges in the future.

Gannett Co., Inc. filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Google for "monopolization of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices." According to Gannett's press release, "The lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the digital advertising marketplace and end Google's monopoly, which will encourage investment in newsrooms and news content throughout the country."

Others have filed similar lawsuits. A bipartisan group of 17 State Attorneys Generals filed a similar lawsuit against Google for ad-tech monopolization in December 2020. Then, the U.S. Department of Justice, joined by a bipartisan group of 17 additional states, filed an ad-tech lawsuit against Google earlier this year. Both lawsuits are ongoing.

Last week, the European Union's competition authority filed an ad-tech lawsuit against Google, citing similar circumstances. Both the DOJ and EU suits are seeking monetary damages and fines, as well as the breakup of Google's ad-tech business. Gannett, as the largest publisher in the U.S. — with USA TODAY and more than 200 local news publications — has now thrown its hat in the ring with today's filing.

Mike Reed, Gannett's chairman and chief executive officer, spoke with E&P this morning in an exclusive interview about the lawsuit and his thoughts about the future possibilities of news media and journalism.

When asked why Gannett filed a standalone suit, Reed said, "The actions that Google has operated under have been monopolistic business practices. They have impacted us for a long period of time, and you could argue that maybe the lawsuit should have been filed sooner. There does seem to be some good momentum right now behind this action, given the DOJ's federal lawsuit against Google for the same infractions around their digital ad technology… This action that we've taken at Gannett is really driven by Google's business practices and their impact on our company and on journalism at the end of the day."

Reed defended Gannett's timing and the standalone filing: "You know, as far as us going by ourselves, we just felt like we had the right size, we had the right legal counsel, and we felt like we didn't want to wait. We're ready to go."

Although the lawsuit does not name an amount for damages sought, Reed is hopeful that the outcome helps all news publications. He stated, "You know, consumers want content. They want local news, national news and content producers like ourselves, which have produced that news for a couple hundred years and have built a business model around advertising. In the digital arena, now that 90% of consumers read their news on the digital platform, you would think digital advertising, which has exploded to a $200 billion industry, would have benefited publishers who produce the content, given consumers are coming to them to digest and engage with the content. Google has inserted themselves in the middle, and they control every aspect of the digital advertising marketplace, from ad placement to the ad exchanges to pricing.

"It's odd for the middleman in this equation to make all the money," Reed continued. "Our hope is that we get the right outcome for the entire industry and that journalism can survive for the next a hundred years because we get a level playing field around the digital advertising marketplace."

Google's VP of Google Ads, Dan Taylor, responded to the lawsuit, "These claims are simply wrong. Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize – in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager. And when publishers choose to use Google tools, they keep the vast majority of revenue. We'll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online."

Many in the industry are applauding Gannett's action. Danielle Coffey, president and CEO, News/Media Alliance said, "Gannett's filing in the ad tech case against Google makes a statement that news publishers have a voice and recourse thanks to the DOJ's solid investigation, and the resulting federal and AG lawsuits. We will continue to actively support this case. Google is not above the law."

Dean Ridings, CEO of America's Newspapers, remarked, "Gannett's legal pursuit of addressing the imbalance in the digital marketplace is a good move. The monopolistic actions in the digital marketplace have stifled the news industry for years, and it is past time to address this issue that has decimated local ad revenue."

Gordon Borrell, CEO, Borrell Associates said, "Glad to see Gannett adding its weight to the effort to break up the monopoly. One company controls 93% of the ad-exchange market, let alone have a tremendous amount of control and influence over content. Since 2000, the market share for the content-rich newspaper industry has completely flipped to tech companies who make scant investments in content and merely aggregate everyone else's. With the pile-on of other lawsuits and government intervention abroad, we could see some relief that leads to a more equitable environment for local media."

Not everyone is bullish on Gannett's approach. Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, had this to say, "It is tragic that once-great Gannett is resorting to protectionism and retribution against its competitors rather than have a strategy for innovation and growth in a changed marketplace. There are legitimate questions to be addressed regarding Google's power in both sides of the advertising market and authorities in both Europe and the US are investigating them. But for Gannett to blame Google's alleged monopoly for its present troubles is just sad. It is also ironic, for in New Jersey, where I live, Gannett is a would-be monopoly, buying up nine newspaper brands and promptly cutting back newsrooms, reducing the coverage and quality of journalism serving this state."

Mike Reed still believes that the news business and journalism have a bright future. "I see a robust future for journalism, for local news, regional news, national news. Consumers still engage with news every single day. We have 150 million 'uniques' to our news platform here in the U.S. every month. So, there's engagement. Consumers want news. We spend all the money creating the news, and Google makes all the money on the advertising side on the back of our news. That's what needs to change. … Others make money off our news on their platform and don't pay us fair use for it. We do need to get these things corrected through fair playing fields and fair compensation, and I think we will. And when we do, I think local, regional and national news will thrive, and you'll see the number of journalists in this country going up versus going down."

To say that Peter Bhatia is a successful newspaper editor would be akin to stating that Tom Brady was a good quarterback. As Bhatia reminisces during this vodcast interview with E&P Publisher Mike Blinder, when he left Stanford in 1975 to begin his journalism career, the first operation he worked at was using "hot type" typesetting to lay out the daily edition.

Since those early days, Bhatia has managed newsrooms that collectively have won 10 Pulitzer Prizes. He spent time in academia as the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism director at Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism. Bhatia was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and received the 2020 "Benjamin Bradlee Editor of the Year Award" from the National Press Foundation. He is the first journalist of South Asian descent to lead a major daily newspaper in the U.S. And was featured on the cover of E&P Magazine as our 2008 "Editor of the Year."

For the last seven years, Bhatia was part of the Gannett/ USA Today company, serving as vice president and editor for the Cincinnati Enquirer from 2015-2017. He then worked for the Detroit Free Press until January 2023, when he decided to be one of eight to take a voluntary severance departure, sacrificing his job to save others from being laid off the next month.

Some thought now that Peter would take advantage of a long and prosperous career, perhaps watching the rest of us struggle to swim in the turbulent waters of today's news publishing industry from his front porch rocking chair. However, that was not to be the case.

A few months after he departed from Gannett, Bhatia announced that he was launching a nonprofit, free-access local news website in the nation's fourth largest metropolitan area, entitled Houston Landing.

Stating its core mission is to be "an independent, nonpartisan news organization devoted to public service journalism that seeks to strengthen democracy and improve the lives of all Houstonians one story at a time," the Landing was started with a 7 million dollar seed investment from three Houston philanthropies – the Houston Endowment, Arnold Ventures and Kinder Foundation.

Bhatia states that the Landing was born out of a study spearheaded by the American Journalism Project that found many Houstonians do not feel they have access to a trusted source for deeply reported stories that impact their daily lives. As of the time of this interview, they have used those funds to hire over 20 journalists led by Editor-in-Chief Mizanur Rahman, who spent 15 years in the same post at the Houston Chronicle.

On June 7th, 2023, Bhatia announced the Houston Landing's launch in an editorial where he states: "We formally launch today, without the legacy that traditional journalistic outlets face based on long years of practices and viewpoints. (We will not have an "editorial page," nor will we endorse political candidates.) We are unburdened with debates about the past. Ours is a clean slate, bolstered by the nonprofit, nonpartisan, no-paywall principles we embrace, and by carving an independent way to make Houston a better place, but to do so through truthful, thoroughly reported, and fair journalism."

In this episode of E&P reports, we go one-on-one with Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom leader Peter Bhatia, who recently exited his post as editor-in-chief of Gannett's Detroit Free Press to lead a new free-access, nonprofit, Texas-based digital local news startup, Houston Landing. We ask Bhatia why he believes this new project lacking paywalls, editorials and local sports can become a sustainable business in today's news ecosystem. We also ask his thoughts on managing newsrooms for over seven years at major market Gannett newspapers and where he sees the news media industry today and the future for its survival.

As E&P Reported in our February 2023 cover story, "Labor puts it all on the line," 2022 was a very active year for union membership, walkouts and strikes. And perhaps no one knows this more than Jon Schleuss, the president of The NewsGuild - Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA).

Schleuss grew up in rural Arkansas, as he admits, in a "very republican world," where the idea of unions and strikes was far from the political discourse he and his family would ever discuss. Schleuss entered journalism at a young age at his college radio station. After graduation, he worked for Wehco Media as the online editor of their second-largest newspaper, The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Later, he joined the Los Angeles Times as a data and graphics journalist, becoming involved in organized labor by being one of a small group that helped unionize the Times in 2018. In 2019, Schleuss ran for and won the presidency of the NewsGuild, where he has led their membership of more than 25,000 workers within over 200 media organizations throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Jon Schleuss keeps an office at the union's headquarters in Washington, D.C, but spends much of his time "on the road," where many management vs. labor disputes are happening within our industry.

In the E&P cover story, Schleuss admitted, "I've spent much of my time working around the country, advocating for local unions and lobbying for legislation. In the last year, we had more strikes and one-day walkouts (or longer) than ever in the Guild's history."

When asked what he attributes to that growth and the particularly contentious year between news business owners and labor, Schleuss cited consolidation, "bad owners," and the startling number of jobs lost over a decade or more.

On May 23, 2023, Schleuss joined several Gannett/ Guild employees on a NewsGuild-CWA hosted webinar, where they discussed the "damage Chairman / CEO Mike Reed has done to the company." They stated, "Mike Reed's tenure has been a disaster for investors, communities and employees."

During the broadcast, Schleuss stated: "Mike Reed has been an utter disaster for Gannett. Rather than investing in the journalists at the heart of Gannett's success, Reed is destroying newsrooms and alienating readers while raking in millions. It's no surprise that Reed's slash-and-burn management style has sunk Gannett's stock price and driven talented journalists into the arms of its competitors. It's time for shareholders to show Mike Reed their disapproval — or risk even further damage to local newsrooms across the country."

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we go one-on-one with The NewsGuild - Communications Workers of America's President Jon Schleuss on why the past 12 months have had more strikes and walkouts than in the history of the Guild. He also offers insights on how hedge fund owners' entry and subsequent downsizing of so many news media properties today are hurting the workers they employ, the communities they serve and our democracy as a whole.

There are hundreds of Evan Brandts in our industry today, doing their jobs alone or in a greatly reduced newsroom, working the same beats covered by tens or hundreds more just a few years ago.

It's easy to cite the reasons for the growth of what many today call "ghost papers," where a community is being underserved in local news coverage. Some blame it on the unregulated "Big Tech" industry that monetizes content while also absorbing local advertising revenues that rightly belong to the news publisher. Others call it evolution, where "survival of the fittest" is tested as legacy media adapts to a multimedia culture. And many blame the corporate greed of hedge funds, which found a quick way to generate short-term profits, by buying up local newspapers and selling off their assets, with little regard for the mission to their local communities — providing that independent, constitutionally-mandated "check on power."

Before his April 2022 appearance on "60 Minutes," odds are you never even heard of Evan Brandt unless you lived over the past 25-plus years in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a suburban Philadelphia community of 40,000 plus. Brandt has worked as a reporter for The Mercury, one of the 160-plus titles under the control of Media News Group, a company owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.

And Evan Brandt has one significant distinction over the other overworked journalists working alone in downsized newsrooms. His union contract protects his employment, allowing him to speak out about how his once robust newspaper has been bought and sold by companies in and out of bankruptcy, leaving him alone without an office within the town he reports on.

And speaking out is what Evan has done, writing numerous pieces for The News Guild-Communication Workers of America and being interviewed by publications like The New York Times, PBS and Mother Jones about how corporate downsizing has affected his hometown. Brandt even drove his Corolla to the Long Island mansion of Heath Freeman, managing director of Alden Global Capitol, wearing his #News Matters tee shirt and carrying a sign his wife made him that said, "Invest in us or Sell us!"

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we go one-on-one with the outspoken reporter for Media News Group's Pottstown (PA) Mercury, Evan Brandt, where we explore what it is like to be the last local journalist remaining at this "ghost paper" that serves a suburban Philadelphia community of over 40,000. Brandt offers insight into his 25+ years at The Mercury, the several ownership bankruptcies that created years of serial downsizing, and how today he works out of his own attic to cover beats once reported on by a team of 30+ reporters.

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.