It’s a small town, so many of you may have probably heard the rumors about the Lyons Recorder’s imminent demise. Well, the good news is that the paper is still in business. Late Wednesday (Feb. 24) afternoon, it became apparent that the last ditch effort by Joanne Barnard and LaVern Johnson to turn the paper into a 501c3 non-profit under the umbrella of the Lyons Historic Society was not going to come to fruition, Lora Gilson, the graphic artist who handles the layout and graphics for the paper, and Joseph Lekarczyk, otherwise known as staff writer, made the decision to try and rescue the operation, and thus keep Lyons’ hometown newspaper afloat.
Gary and Shar Wamsley had graciously offered to keep the paper running for the first week of March to allow Barnard/Johnson to try and get all their ducks in a row. The same offer was extended to Gilson/Lekarczyk, who agreed to work one week at no salary to help keep costs down. It was also decided that the paper would be an eight-page, black and white edition; also to cut costs. A premature article appeared in the Longmont Ledger (a free insert that came in the Sunday [Feb. 28] Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera) stating that an “investment group” had stepped in to purchase the paper, which only fueled the rumor mill, and muddied the water. Never the less, a deal with the Wamsleys was struck, and Gilson/Lekarczyk signed the papers on Saturday, March 6, to become the new owners of The Lyons Recorder.
Against all journalistic codes I’m sure, I will now switch to the first person (because I can) to explain to our advertisers, our subscribers, and the community as a whole exactly where we are, where we are hoping to go, and how we intend to get there. First of all, Lora and I would like to thank all the people who have been so supportive over the last few days as the news of the purchase has leaked out. It has truly been humbling to see, the number of people who have expressed how important the paper is to the community, and how much they appreciate our stepping up to keep it going. We will do our best not to let the community down.
We obviously have to make drastic changes to the business model. To use a boating analogy, our first job is to right the ship, plug the leaks, and bail like heck! To that end, the paper will continue, for the time being, as an eight-page, black and white edition. As great as color looks, the additional pages and color add to the printing costs by a factor of two to four times (depending on whether it’s 12 or 16 pages). Also, we have crunched the numbers, and regretfully the price of an individual paper and a subscription will have to go up. Before the Wamsleys bought the paper (Sept. 2007) the price was 75 cents a paper. That price will be re-instituted. As such the cost of a yearly subscription will also be going up; the cover price of 75 cents per issue, works out to 39 dollars per year (52 X .75 = $39). Unfortunately the old price ($20 per year) meant that because of set costs for printing and mailing the paper, each new subscription put the paper deeper and deeper into the hole! Lora and I can’t do that.
Another part of the cost cutting equation is moving into a smaller office. We have moved from our old space on the corner of 3rd Avenue and High Street, to upstairs over the Steamboat Mountain Market on 5th and High. Feel free to stop by and visit the new digs; we are in Suite C. It was also necessary to cut all of the salaried staff. We thank Andrea Marshall and Carol Pranschke for all their help during the transition. The paper will now be a “Mom and Pop” operation, Lora will be the Mom, and I will be the Pop. Lora will continue to do layout (and act as editor for my stories so that I don’t run amok), I will handle content and edit other writers work, and we will both share the job of increasing subscriptions and ad revenues, as well as the day-to-day business duties. Some of our regular contributing writers have agreed to continue to submit articles for free, and we are deeply touched by their generosity. We also hope those individuals who have contributed articles about topics that are near and dear to their hearts, i.e. music, schools, sports, health, poetry, photographs, and life in general, will continue to submit them. We are always happy when the community gets involved and lets us know what is important to them. We wish to thank those writers who are not in a position to write for free, we understand, and respect your situation.
A very exciting part of the new business plan will be our “on-line” presence. Lora’s husband, Bob Gilson, has been building a website for those who prefer to get their news via the Internet. He is building features such as inter-active public opinion polls, classified ads, a photo gallery, click-through ads which will bring browsers to advertiser’s homepages, archives, and many other special features not possible in traditional print papers. We hope to have presentation ready for one of the next Chamber of Commerce Socials in either March or April. Details will be available in an upcoming issue.
We also want to thank Gary and Shar; they have been extremely generous and helpful. Together they definitely raised the bar during their stewardship of the Lyons Recorder. Also, it should not go unmentioned, Shar is an avid historian (she complied a great book “Reflection on the River – The Big Thompson Canyon Flood”) and geneologist, and in that capacity, she and Gary, over the last two years, at great expense have compiled and bound complete volumes of the Lyons Recorder going back 20 years. Due to the “space constrictions” at our new office, Lora and I cannot store these historic treasures, and Shar and Gary have graciously agreed to allow us to donate them to the Lyons Historic Society, which will preserve them for generations to come. We as a community owe the Wamsleys a large debt of gratitude.
As I mentioned, Lora and I will be “pounding the pavement and making calls” to increase revenues from subscriptions and ads. We look forward to seeing and talking to you, we hope you feel the same. Our goal is to continue publishing a hometown newspaper that everyone will enjoy, want to subscribe to, and advertise in. To paraphrase Hilary Clinton (I hope I don’t put off any potential clients) “It takes a community to sustain a hometown newspaper.”
Oh yeah, about the award winning journalists (talk about burying the lead). At the Colorado Press Awards Ceremony, held Saturday, February 28 at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Lora won two third place awards; one for best use of an informational graphic (for the Wicen subdivision story), and the other for best editorial layout and design (total layout of a paper). And I won a third place for best series (naked breasts at Town Hall) and a first place for best headlines. Three bronzes and a gold! A very auspicious way indeed to begin a new era for the Lyons Recorder.
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