Just a year ago, the Silverton Standard & the Miner, the oldest continuously operated newspaper on the Western Slope of Colorado, was on the brink.
The remote county-seat weekly had fallen on hard times in recent years.
It had been acquired by Gatehouse Media, a large newspaper chain, which was perhaps speculating that Silverton was destined to be the next Telluride or Crested Butte.
But that media conglomerate fell on hard times and ended up selling its Southwest Colorado operations, which also included the Telluride Daily Planet and the Norwood Post, to Randy Miller, a veteran newspaper man from Boulder.
Miller is a sharp businessman and no one could blame him for seeing the tiny Silverton Standard as something of a liability to his newly acquired Telluride-based operation.
With the recession in full swing and the newspaper industry in general in a severe slump, it would not be easy for Miller to find a buyer for the Standard. He told me he’d be willing to donate the newspaper to a local nonprofit.
I knew exactly what to do.
I walked the few blocks from the Standard’s office in the historic Miners Union Hospital up to the county courthouse, where Bev Rich, president of the San Juan County Historical Society, also serves as county treasurer.
I knew she was a devoted newspaper reader and she realized how important it was for Silverton to save its community newspaper.
Talks began and on May 1, 2009, the San Juan County Historical Society became the proud owner of the Silverton Standard & the Miner.
The historical society inherited a newspaper that was not exactly making money. And it didn’t even have a real business office in Silverton anymore. All the bookkeeping had been transferred to Telluride a few years earlier.
We were fortunate to enlist Gina Rosato, a talented designer, to produce our advertising and manage the business end of things. She, by the way, is the real hero here. Meanwhile I concentrated on news (and my paper route).
And we ended up having a pretty good year — circulation has risen, advertising revenue is up, despite the very challenging economy.
The Standard is demonstrating that it can be a viable business, albeit not a lucrative one.
Even so, it’s been clear all along that the Standard has become something different.
We are now “Silverton Public Newspaper,” as I sometimes call it, along the model of National Public Radio.
Donations from groups, students and individuals helped us re-establish the business office here and got us off to a great start.
We had a few fundraisers that were tremendously successful. (By the way, we still have a few of our popular 2010 calendars left, so give us a call.)
But we have also learned exactly how challenging the newspaper business is these days.
Our big upcoming project is to produce a summer vacation guide for San Juan County. And hopefully we can launch a winter version to spread the word that Silverton is even more amazing during that time of year.
As Silverton Public Newspaper, we won’t be going anywhere. But we will still need support from our readers.
The most humbling moment of this whole experience was when students at Silverton School came up to our office last spring and donated $2,000 to our cause.
Seeking donations and grants and conducting fundraisers has been a whole new adventure.
A year ago, the Standard was on the brink. Thanks to the community’s support (including our vast Silverton diaspora), we have survived.
We have survived to continue telling the amazing story of Silverton — its past, its present and its hopes for the future.
Through all of this, I keep thinking of John Curry, who started all this back in 1875 when he managed to haul what was even then an antique press over Stony Pass by pack train.
I imagine what was going through his head on that amazing trek into the wilderness. I think of that journey of his often, just to keep things in perspective — the hardships he went through to establish this historic newspaper and keep it afloat.
I can sometimes almost hear him saying it: “Keep going!”
This summer, we will conclude our 135th year. And then we’ll keep going.
Mark Esper is editor and publisher of the Silverton Standard & the Miner.
