As the Media Landscape Shifts, Will Journalists Adapt Fast Enough?

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High Country ForN people whoews care about the West December 24, 2018 | $5 | Vol. 50 No. 22 | www.hcn.org 50 No. | $5 Vol. 2018 December 24,

As the media landscape shifts, will journalists adapt fast enough?

... An in-depth look at survival strategies ...

Plus: The rise of the Alt-American West in the age of untruth CONTENTS

Editor’s note Enemy of the people

The first half of my journalistic career was spent abroad, much of it in Cambodia, a Southeast Asian country reeling from decades of war and corruption. The country is run by elites under the patronage of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a strongman who has clung to power for nearly four decades through the brutal suppression of all who oppose him. Hun Sen was a soldier in the Khmer Rouge, the communist guerillas who killed some 2 million of their countrymen, especially those they labeled “enemies of the people,” a term coined by Vladimir Lenin. Hun Sen’s rule is violent, but he is also a skilled demagogue who uses the media to ridicule opponents, subtly encouraging others to attack his foes. His people have thrown grenades into opposition rallies and murdered labor leaders, environmentalists and, yes, journalists — eight of them since 1994. I have never lived in a scarier place, so you can A cutout of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper looks out from the office of Westword Editor Patty Calhoun. LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/HIGH COUNTRY NEWS imagine how I feel today hearing the president of the United States call American journalists FEATURE the “enemies of the people.” Of Donald Trump’s many documented falsehoods, this is the most dangerous. And it has had real consequences. 14 Blooms in the Desert In June, a gunman walked into the Capital As the ecosystem of news changes, will journalists adapt fast enough? Gazette, in Annapolis, Maryland, and killed five By Kenton Bird On the cover people, four of them journalists. In October, an 16 ardent Trump supporter mailed 13 bombs to Original lettering by News Deserts of the West critics of the president, two of them to CNN. Just Japheth Crawford 20 No News is Bad News for Public Health as in Cambodia, we cannot ignore the political environment in which these attacks take place. The U.S. media is taking a beating, even as CURRENTS it struggles to survive in the age of the internet. Many local papers are folding, creating “news deserts” that further erode democratic processes. 5 What you lose when you lose local news Where newspapers decline, This issue, the last of the year, is dedicated to people are less likely to vote and more likely to polarize examining the impact of these deserts, while 5 Podcasts that fill the gaps highlighting the stubborn media “blooms” that 6 Patty Calhoun has hope The journalism of Denver’s Westword point the way toward a brighter future. We hope readers will be inspired to support good journalism 10 Indigenous comics push back against hackneyed stereotypes The ‘noble savage’ in comics is dead. Long live the Dakwäkãda Warriors and denounce attacks on the press, wherever they occur. At a time when the leader of the free world is undermining the press, journalists need defense, DEPARTMENTS not derision. The Founding Fathers understood the 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG importance of journalism. Thomas Jefferson hoped for a republic “governed by reason and Complete access 4 LETTERS truth,” brought about by “the freedom of the to subscriber-only content 11 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends press.” Because the press is “the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions,” HCN’s website 22 MARKETPLACE hcn.org he reasoned, it needs our protection. “A popular 24 BOOKS Digital edition Government,” James Madison wrote, “without hcne.ws/digi-5022 Welcome to the Alt-American West popular information, or the means of acquiring Alt-America by David Neiwert and The Death of Truth it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or by Michiko Kakutani. Reviewed by Brian Calvert perhaps both.” It is up to all of us to ensure that Follow us 27 PERSPECTIVE this prologue is never written, and to fight the true  The union wins in the end By Ruxandra Guidi enemy of the people: attacks on truth itself. —Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston

2 High Country News December 24, 2018 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG

Feds fail to prosecute crimes Trending in Indian Country How the According to a new report from the Indigenous Department of Justice, U.S. attorneys bison bar was declined to prosecute over a third of cases appropriated referred to them from Indian Country last year. The figure, 37 percent, is slightly up To hear the food from 2016 and steady with data since 2011, industry tell it, the after then-President Barack Obama signed bison bar — a trendy, the Tribal Law and Order Act into law. Of protein-dense snack the cases that were declined, over a quarter — has an undisputed were incidents of sexual assault — data have origin story. It was long shown that violent crime rates in Indian invented in 2011 by Country are higher than national averages, Katie Forrest and especially when it comes to violence against Taylor Collins, vegan women and girls. endurance athletes “This report only confirms that Native who turned to meat to victims continue to fall through the cracks of power their punishing our justice system,” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., training regimen. told the Associated Press. The report also Epic Provisions was came amid talks about the reauthorization of acquired by General the Violence Against Women Act, which gives Mills for $100 million. tribes more authority to arrest non-Native But there’s a problem perpetrators. The VAWA deadline has been with the idea that Kenny Still Smoking touches the tombstone of his 7-year-old daughter, Monica, who disappeared it’s an entirely new from school on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in 1979. DAVID GOLDMAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS pushed to Dec. 21. ELENA SAAVEDRA BUCKLEY Read more online: hcne.ws/feds-fail product: It isn’t true. Back in 2006, social entrepreneurs A rocket Offshore oil drilling could Mark Tilsen and Kar- lene Hunter started Percent of permits for major launches hamper Arctic aurora research making the Tanka Bar, water-polluting84 facilities in Oregon that are into the On dark, clear winter nights in Fairbanks, the first commercial outdated. northern lights from Alaska, the northern lights often arc across meat and fruit bison Poker Flat the sky like curtains blown by a cosmic bar, on South Dakota’s Number of years Research breeze. Sometimes, that spectacle becomes a Pine Ridge Reserva- some permits have20 been in place. (They’re scientific laboratory, when researchers launch Range near tion. They hoped to supposed to be renewed every 5 years.) Fairbanks, rockets into the aurora borealis to study the create something — Alaska, forces that form it. Now, a federal push for produced by Native On Nov. 20, a state court approved a consent where more offshore Arctic oil drilling is threatening people — to help decree between environmental groups and research that research. The Bureau of Ocean Energy reduce the reserva- Oregon’s Department of Environmental could be Management is planning to sell drilling tion’s unemployment Quality, forcing the state to meet a timeline hampered leases off Alaska’s northern coast next year. rate and restore the for issuing updated water pollution permits. by increased But NASA officials are worried: Expanded buffalo’s place in The new permits will hold municipal and drilling in drilling would mean more people and Oglala Lakota life. industrial polluters to modern water-quality the Beaufort property at risk of being hit by a motor or But Tanka’s role in standards, doing away with expired permits Sea. payload plummeting from the sky, and that popularizing the bison that, in many cases, sanction higher levels of JAMIE ADKINS/ could limit rocket launches. EMILY BENSON bar has been largely contamination than updated permits would NASA Read more online: hcne.ws/aurora-research ignored. Though the allow. CARL SEGERSTROM company has had Read more online: hcne.ws/update-permits modest financial success, it has never attracted the funding and media attention Two countries, one border that Epic has. and their shared pollution MARILYN NOBLE/NEW Cross-border water pollution between Tijuana and South San Diego FOOD ECONOMY is not new, but in recent years, the problem has grown worse. The reasons are complicated: Tijuana’s topography has steep hillsides You say and canyons that drain towards the border; local factories get STEVE JONES: “I’ve away with illegal dumping; there is aging wastewater infrastructure tried both and much and inadequate garbage collection. In the U.S., cuts to the prefer Tanka. It’s Environmental Protection Agency have prevented improvements actually delicious. to the Borderlands’ sewage system. Over the years, both countries Epic, not so much.” have signed numerous agreements to facilitate collaboration, but the solutions have been slow to materialize. Meanwhile, beaches near the border are routinely closed, BETHANN GARRAMON surfers often get sick, and most of the garbage cleanup is done MERKLE: “Just read by volunteers. In February 2017, disaster struck: A winter storm this phenomenal cracked sewer pipes and manhole covers in Tijuana, sending more piece, and sent it to than 200 million gallons of untreated sewage across the border. our local co-op. Hope Last March, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and the Port of San they switch products!” Diego sued the federal government, arguing that its failure to do Read more online: more to mitigate the problem violated U.S. environmental laws. The hcne.ws/bison-bar San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental and Facebook.com/ nonprofit, also sued — and this September, so did the state of Drone footage from March 2017 shows a sewage plume spreading across highcountrynews California. SARAH TORY Read more online: hcne.ws/shared-sewage Imperial Beach, California. ZACH WICK/YOUTUBE CAPTURE

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Of Of - Del Norte, Colorado Randal W.Ghormley southwest Colorado. of thegreaterconnectedlandscape and stakeholders, andanawareness transparency, inclusion ofkeybiologists commitment toscientificintegrity, term persistencewillrequirearenewed Appropriately addressingtheirlong- social andaestheticvaluesofColorado. contribute greatlytotheeconomic, are localiconsofthewildthat needed toachieve effectiveseparation. achieve thesignificantlineardistances occurrence. Itisthereforedifficultto that stray domestic sheepareacommon complicated bytrailingandthefact bighorn sheepforays. This riskisfurther and/or afailuretoaddresspotential to bothspeciesgrazinginclose proximity boundaries, high-riskareasremain, due made byvacatingoradjustingallotment manner. While improvementshave been may notevaluate threatsinaconsistent Bureau ofLandManagementunitsthat including individualForest Serviceand Multiple landownershipsareinvolved, function asinterconnectedpopulations. Continental Divide, wheremanyherds throughout southwestColorado. in highlightingastorythatapplies outcome. The article isthereforetimely picked toportray adesiredconclusion or intentionally manipulatedorcherry- my experience, informationhasbeen this issuehasbeenchallenging. In applying knownsciencethataddresses sheep herdsinColorado. However, be theprimarythreattomanybighorn introduction ofdiseasescontinuesto 9/3/18). Itiswidelyrecognizedthatthe Editor, HCN, P.O. 1090,Paonia, Box 81428. CO Rocky Mountainbighornsheep Threats occuronbothsidesofthe BIGHORNS Methow Valley, Washington Tom Binh Bob mightstillbealive. park inthe1990s, myfriend cessfully removedfromthe duced, orhadtheybeensuc- Threat toBighorns,” HCN, our landscape(“TheBig article, which alsoshare herds mentionedinHCN’s including someofthe in southwestColorado, with bighornsheepissues Forest. Iworkedextensively the RioGrandeNational lead wildlifebiologiston with manyyearsasthe the U.S. Forest Service, I recentlyretiredfrom Send lettersSend to [email protected] or

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BLM TOM CLIFTON I inefficiencies; and, ultimately, lesslikely cials accountable, leadingtoeconomic district; lessabletoholdmunicipaloffi- about thecandidatesfortheirU.S. House munity association; lessknowledgeable tacting publicofficialsorjoiningacom- to participateincivicactivities, likecon- coverage drops, residentsarelesslikely racy itselfsuffers. When localprintnews to information about local issues, democ- found thatwhenthepubliclacks access may bedifficult toturnaround. local journalism, expertssay, thattrend polarized. Without arevivalofsupportfor interested invoting—andmorepolitically communities andelectedofficials, less become moredisconnectedfromtheirown ant onnationaloutlets. As aresult, they interested inthenewsareleftmorereli- local newspapersshrinkandclose, people landscape overthepastthreedecades. As a monumentalshiftinthenation’s media increasing partisanshipmay berelatedto century. ticket senator-and-president outcomeina est percentageofstateswithastraight- growing polarization, markingthehigh- for Donald Trump electedaDemocrat. a Republicansenator; nostatethatwent state thatwentforHillaryClintonelected same politicalpartyinbothcontests. No that held a U.S. Senate election favored the were counted, it was clear: Every state the samerace. Bythetimefinalvotes wins startedtolookliketheywereplotting City councils, public forums, Forest Service briefings, publicCity councils, forums, transportation Forest inCalifornia, meetings Arizona, Oregon, Washington Service and South Dakota. News . High Country at editor Emily Bensonisanassistant state-by-state Senate and presidential state-by-state Senate andpresidential began rollingin, themapsshowing n November 2016, as election results For adecadeorso, researchers have Now, newresearch suggests America’s It was a stark display of the nation’s What you lose when you lose local news What you local you when lose lose Where newspapers decline, people are less likely to vote and more likely to polarize  @erbenson1

DANIEL ARAUZ DAVE PALMER because it’s agoodgaugeofpoliticalpolar study, focusedonstraight-ticket voting who ledtheJournal ofCommunication tion atLouisianaStateUniversity. Darr, Darr, aprofessor ofpoliticalcommunica- they’re markingtheirballots, saidJoshua relying exclusively onpartisancueswhen line. Inotherwords, itkeepsvotersfrom not justhowclosely theyhewtotheparty dates —whattheystandforspecifically, vidual prioritiesandgoalsoflocalcandi- did in2016. cast astraight-ticket ballot, justasthey down, thosewhodovotearemorelikelyto a newspaperintheircommunityshuts an evenfurther-reaching effect: After the In November, a newstudypublishedin at SoutheastMissouriStateUniversity. Sarah Cavanah, aprofessorofmassmedia people don’tturnouttoparticipate,” said to vote. “When thatcoveragegoesaway, example, adifferenceofjustquarter shifts canswingelections. This year, for and church attendance. Butevensmall like education, politicalpartyaffiliation other factorsalsoaffectvotingbehavior, may seemlike asmalleffect; afterall, ones thathadn’tlostnewspapers. That ing insuch countiescomparedtosimilar nearly 2percentmorestraight-ticket vot- president inthe2012election. They found paper splittheirvotesforsenatorand country thathadrecentlylostanews- how oftenvotersin66countiesacrossthe could have something todowithit, too. leagues wonderedif the lossoflocalnews growing partisanship. Darr and hiscol- leaders, forexample, toexplain America’s down pressureonpoliticiansfromparty as variedeconomicinequalityandtop- ization. Otherscholars have citedfactors Local newsletspeopleknowtheindi- To findout, the researchers analyzed Journal ofCommunicationrevealed BY EMILY BENSON

JAY INSLEE OREGON DEPT. TRANSPORT - ecosystem.” that, if we don’t have a quality local news Cavanah said. “And wemightendupwith we enduphaving nationalizedpolitics,” today. “I don’tseeagoodfutureforusif partisan animositysplittingthecountry pressed tohelpkeepincheck thebitter mation, localnewsmediawillbehard- recognizing theimportanceoflocalinfor port fromreaders, bolstered bypolicies information,” Shakersaid. Without sup- the publicneedstovalueandseekthis try offaneconomiccliff. “Fundamentally, ing tolocalnewspapers, shovingtheindus- processes function.” a nation, workingtomakesurethatthose media andpolitics. “We simplystopped, as at Portland StateUniversitywhostudies politics now,” saidLeeShaker, aprofessor crisis inthefunctioningofstateandlocal not necessarilyaccidentalthatthere’s a far fromuniversallysupported. “So it’s guard access to independentmedia, are net neutrality, which wouldhelpsafe- nated bydigitalmedia, andupdateslike policies aren’taspowerfulinaneradomi- diverse sourcesoflocalnews. Butthose ensure thatcommunitieshadaccessto papers to share someresources, helped 1970, which allowedcompetingnews- and theNewspaperPreservation Act of Rules likelowermailratesforperiodicals tections forlocalnewsitselfhave eroded. politics inrecentyears.” tion thatseemstohave reallytakenover they’ll helpstemthetideofthispolariza- existing,” Darrsaid. “If theycandothat, resent UtahinCongress. over RepublicanMiaLoveinaracetorep- brought DemocratBenMcAdamsvictory a percentagepoint, orabout700votes, At thesametime, westoppedsubscrib- That bulwark hasweakened as pro- “(Local news sources) just need to keep

USFS DAVE PALMER CURRENTS www.hcn.org - H P Mountain restoration. tribal work onbison bison,and lowstone ofYel-slaughter West, notorious the herds returning the to ity offree-roaming possibil- including the Americanbison, the to season isdedicated Thefirst sis Reporting. onCri- Pulitzer Center Public Radio andthe include Montana planet.”the Funders being changed by — are —and changing on how “humans narrative storytelling Independent, in-depth thresholdpodcast.org Threshold fill Podcasts Go Hampton Sides. author and best-selling Dant Sarah historian Bonogofsky, Alexis ist - rancher-activ Montana recent include guests Palmer LandTrust, its Khakisand Mountain Funded by listeners, entrepreneurs. tionists, - conserva artists, letes, - ath writers, ranchers, West” — American future ofthe who are “shaping the ofallstripes innovators interviews Roberson Ed Conservationist com/podcast mountainandprairie. Conservation Fund. Fund. Conservation LandandWaterthe save battleto the future,post-coal and Navajothe Nation’s JoelClement, scientist climate Department ing from former Interior advice onwhistleblow- episodes include equity. Current and on conservation focuses which Legacy Fund, Resources project ofthe Priorities, a for Western Center of the duced by Aaron Weiss isproThis podcast - category/podcast westernpriorities.org/ igh odcast

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Patty Calhoun has hope The journalism of Denver’s Westword BY GUSTAVO ARELLANO

atty Calhoun is ready to rumble. The stopping — cannabis-related ads now Hickenlooper, a longtime friend who, when founding and current editor of Westword, comprise about 35 percent of the paper’s he was mayor, appeared on Westword’s Denver’s alternative weekly, just walked revenue. cover dressed in a zoot suit. “Relentless through the paper’s annual Tacolandia “We make jokes about how we should and principled, she (can) also be ruthless festival in front of Denver’s Classical-style put bumper stickers on our cars that show in the pursuit of the truth, especially if she City Hall to watch a lucha libre match. everyone what feeds our families,” says a smelled a cover-up or just simple lying.” Around her, over 3,000 people enjoy the Westword staffer. “Early on, it was ‘Futon That kind of respect comes from some delicias of more than 40 Mexican food sales feed my family,’ then ‘Sex ads feed former targets, too. “It doesn’t go into vendors on an overcast but balmy August my family.’ Now, it’s ‘Marijuana ads feed a stereotype into what an alt-weekly Sunday afternoon. my family.’ ” should be,” says Tom Tancredo, a retired Nearby, Westword publisher Scott That’s despite the fact that Westword’s Republican congressman, who describes Tobias talks with vendors to make sure marijuana coverage is fairly modest: a the paper’s coverage of his long, contro- they’re happy. (They are.) The photogra- weekly product review, an advice column, versial career as “fair.” “I think that the pher snaps pictures of attendees that will and occasional news coverage — all of Denver Post has maybe three or four years, appear the next day on Westword’s web- which tend to get lost in the daily wave of and it’ll be gone. And I bet you Westword “Patty site as a slideshow; the social media team news, food and music stories. Nevertheless, will still be there.” Calhoun tweets and Instagrams and shoots video. marijuana industry leaders know that if Calhoun, meanwhile watches masked they want to connect with the Mile High “THIS IS HOW MUCH CONTROL I HAVE,” embodies Mexican wrestlers leap off top ropes City, they need to go with Westword. Calhoun cracks over the phone a couple toward their opponents as a multicultural That’s because in an era where many of weeks after Tacolandia. “I’m cancelling what crowd cheers. publications skew partisan or go niche to our staff meeting today. My managing edi- “Last time I saw them, I thought, ‘I so survive, Westword still tries to cover every- tor is already running late. The layout edi- journalism want to do this,’ ” Calhoun says, biting into thing and anything in greater Denver. In tor has to leave because her chicken just used to aspire a sweetbread taco. “It’s just like fighting the process, it appeals to the multiple died, and she has to deal with the chicken.” an editor or writer or publisher. It’s all strata of the city in a way few other metro From her small office, crowded with to become.” performance. It’s a foregone conclusion, papers in America can claim. back issues, bullhorns, an empty tequila —Colorado Democratic but you have to do it.” Calhoun and two of her former Cornell bottle shaped like a Tommy gun and local Gov. John Hickenlooper, a She returns to Tacolandia’s VIP area University dorm-mates started Westword art that includes a sawed-off mannequin, longtime friend to grab a margarita with friends, but the in 1977, as the winds of Watergate blew she is editing a column on marijuana. You crowd keeps stopping her. “Love your through the nation and stoked the alt- can hear the quick keyboard clicks as she work, Ms. Calhoun!” shouts one man along press along the way. The partners soon rewrites a sentence. Then, silence. the way. “Keep killing it!” says another. departed, leaving Calhoun as the sole “I have to tell my pot critic that what Another woman congratulates her on run- boss until she sold it to what eventually they wrote makes no sense, which is usu- ning Westword for 30 years. became the largest chain of alt-weeklies ally the case,” she finally says. “Or, it can “It’s actually been 40,” Calhoun in the United States. At first, Westword be me. I’m still into Cheech and Chong responds. was ostracized for publishing outrageous jokes. That’s no longer current. That’s a It’s actually been 41. stories deemed inappropriate by jour- beat I get schooled in all the time.” In an era where alt-weeklies are dying nalism schools and politicians alike. But Calhoun is tall, with long blond hair and daily newspapers continue to see eventually, Calhoun and her crew — with and piercing blue eyes. The 64-year-old their influence erode, Westword occupies their prodigious knowledge and output on always wears long skirts, cowboy boots a special place in American journalism. everything from sexual assault cover-ups or flip-flops, and some form of turquoise Its mix of investigative stories, cultural at the United States Air Force Academy in jewelry, and carries herself like a cross coverage, snarky humor and articles that Colorado Springs and environmental rac- between legendary journalist Nellie Bly frequently go viral has created something ism to the history of Buffalo Bill’s Mexican (a personal hero) and Annie Oakley — almost unheard of in the industry today: restaurant and the rise of Colorado’s craft- crusading, but not showy, with the per- stability, and a widespread respect border- beer industry — forged a publication that sonality of a cool aunt who never married ing on civic reverence. told the tale of Denver in all its breathtak- because she’d rather travel the world. She It’s healthy even as its ostensible daily ing highs and embarrassing lows. gets up at 5 every morning and, for three rival, the Denver Post, publishes editorials “I was already interested in the West,” hours, edits stories scheduled for the web begging its “vulture capitalists” owners to Calhoun says; in high school, she wrote a that day, then spends the rest of the day sell the paper to local buyers. Westword paper on Montana that inspired her father working on the print edition and her own remains “very, very strong” with “a big to buy land there and build a cabin that articles. She tries to write at least one profit,” according to Tobias. That’s thanks the family still owns. “I liked Cornell, but story a week, across different sections, in part to Colorado voters, who legalized I didn’t like the East Coast obsession with but ultimately follows her own break- marijuana in 2012 and opened a spigot pedigree. The West has that promise for ing-news clock. In an eight-day stretch of cash that doesn’t show any signs of people who wanted to do their own things. in September, for instance, she penned You are what you do, not where you came 1,000-plus word pieces on the Colorado from.” gubernatorial race, the closing of a dive Gustavo Arellano is a features writer for the Los “Patty Calhoun embodies what bar, a quick profile of a nonprofit, and a Angeles Times and the author of Taco USA: How journalism used to aspire to become,” review of a just-opened hiking trail on top Mexico Food Conquered America. says Colorado Democratic Gov. John of a former nuclear power plant.

6 High Country News December 24, 2018 PODCASTS ...

The Modern West themodernwest.org This Wyoming Public Media podcast covers Western news, cultural stories, interviews, oral histo- ries and more. Recent episodes include the fight to make land conservation a priority, the climate- change-induced migration of birds of prey, and how women are redefining what it means to live in the West.

Open Spaces wyomingpublicmedia. org/programs/open- spaces-podcast Also by Wyoming Public Media, this covers news and public affairs topics of concern to Wyoming and the entire West. Recent episodes included the reduced transparency in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the legacy of Matthew Shepard’s murder, whether the presence of grizzly bears affects the outfitter and guide industry, and an interview with U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

Range: Stories of the New American West rangepodcast.org Hosted by journalists Julia Ritchey and Amy Westervelt, Range incorporates humor, music and commentary to cover the “stories, issues, and trailblazing entrepreneurs of the New American West.” Recent topics include the challenges a new clothing company faced in manufacturing in the region, affordable housing in resort towns, and West Coast women in Patty Calhoun, founder and high tech. editor of Westword in Denver. LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 “One time, I asked Patty to look at a Where would you rather be than in in Calhoun’s garage because no one knew cover story I was editing,” says Westword’s Denver, Colorado? And if you’re there, how to do circulation. Their first office managing editor Ana Campbell, who’s where would you rather be working than was on the second floor of a Victorian-era been at the paper for two years. “All of a at Westword?” building where prostitutes once plied their sudden, she said, ‘Don’t you just love it But the paper isn’t an ossuary, either. trade. (“Even without taking inflation into when you fall asleep, and see how editing It maintains a reputation as a launching account, they made more money than we a story will come out?’ And I said, ‘Patty, pad for young writers; the Washington did,” Calhoun commented in a 20th anni- only you would dream that.’ ” Post just hired one of its former interns. versary reminiscence in 1998.) Or only a Westworder. The paper’s “People still come up to me and ask “It was a smaller city then,” she says. editorial staff hoards over a century of me about stuff I wrote at Westword,” says “You would go knock (on) the door at a busi- Denver newspaper experience in three Adam Cayton-Holland, star of TruTV’s ness for a sale, and there would be a sign people alone: Calhoun (the Denver Post Those Who Can’t and a staffer from 2004 that said ‘Gone skiing.’ I have not gotten a has had 14 editors-in-chief during her to 2009 who wrote a humor column called ‘Gone skiing’ message for a long time.” reign), staff writer Michael Roberts (who “What’s So Funny.” “To come up in an envi- In 1983, Calhoun sold the paper to Jim “There joined as a music editor in 1990), and Alan ronment like that is incredible. Rarely was Larkin and Michael Lacey, owners of the are more Prendergast, who has written for the paper I just handed assignments. I was expected Phoenix New Times, because she wanted since 1984. He brought Westword acclaim to bring stuff in.” to focus on writing and was tired of the media with his coverage of the aftermath of the Not bad for a paper that, like its city, business side of things. The new own- Columbine massacre and his deep dives has known boom-and-busts with the regu- ers upped publication to a weekly and voices into Colorado’s federal Supermax prison. larity of the Broncos in the Super Bowl. allowed Calhoun to hire staffers. “We were now. That “The production manager has been Two alt-weeklies were already in town a hard-drinking, hard-reporting crew,” here 25 years,” Calhoun says. “The busi- when Westword put out its first issue, a says Prendergast. “The dailies were con- will make ness manager, I hired him 37 years ago. debut that saw most of the issues piled temptuous of us. It was difficult to get respect or recognition, but that was okay. things We weren’t following daily rules, or taking a story and turning it into mush.” tougher on With the Post and the Rocky Mountain Westword News locked in a newspaper war, Westword grabbed attention with sto- to be the ries that its rivals didn’t dare report. In 1986, Calhoun revealed that the presi- alterna- dent of a group of suburban newspapers tive voice. had killed his mother, father and sister as an 18-year-old, yet never disclosed his That’ll past to readers or mentioned that he had changed his name. be a Newspapers across the country and local leaders tut-tutted about the piece’s challenge.” relevance. They howled three years later, —David Milstead, business columnist for when Westword published a bombshell: Canada’s Globe and Sal Aunese, the University of Colorado Mail and president of Buffaloes’ star quarterback, who was the Denver Press Club dying of cancer, had had an out-of-wedlock child with the daughter of head coach Bill McCartney, who had built a cult of per- sonality, not just around his powerhouse program but also his unapologetic evan- gelical Christianity. The story seems tame nowadays, but back then, it created a nationwide scan- dal. Editors for the Post and News blasted Westword in the national press, which parroted their disgust. “It was ugly and sensational,” the Miami Herald wrote. “If there was a way of treating the matter in a tasteful way as a significant news story, (Westword) did not find it.” McCartney was even less charitable. In his 1994 biography, he confessed that Marijuana posters biblical verses given to him by a stranger line the walls of just before the article hit “arrived just in a Westword ad time to save two lives. They saved mine designer’s work from a possible death penalty or life-sen- area. Although tence in prison. And they saved the life of Westword’s the (Westword reporter) I would surely coverage of the topic is minimal, have tried to kill.” marijuana ads Advertisers pulled out; the paper provide a lot of the received multiple bomb threats. (During ad revenue. one, Westword staffers crossed the street LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/ to drink beers. That’s where Calhoun HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

8 High Country News December 24, 2018 met Hickenlooper, who complained to her corruption to badly planned municipal New trafficking. National and local advertis- Staff writer Michael about the regulations the city was impos- Year’s Eve festivities. But the rise of the ers dropped the paper, and Westword had Roberts, left, ing on his brewpub.) To this day, Calhoun internet began to chip away at Westword’s to lay off staffers. The shrinkage hasn’t started in 1990 defends the Aunese story. revenue stream, just as it did with every stopped; it combined its music and arts as Westword’s “That was a story that had been talked newspaper. editor position two years ago. Last year, music editor. about in newsrooms around the state but “It was a slow slide until 2008,” she Prendergrast left after his job was turned Managing editor Ana Campbell, never published,” she says. “The media said. “But it was a very fast slide after.” into a web-first writer slot. There are now center, is a new was an old boys’ network. Question then 10 full-timers left in editorial. recruit, with just became, ‘Why didn’t they report it?’ “SO YOU’LL TOTALLY LOVE THIS,” Calhoun The paper itself has also shrunk; two years onboard. “More importantly, we never got a tells her colleagues on the James Beard an October issue was 72 pages, with 31 Alan Prendergast, request for a retraction. Not one.” Journalism Awards Committee during a devoted to marijuana ads. Circulation right, had been with Respect and revenue came as Denver meeting this fall in New York City. “So I’m is now 50,000, down from 110,000 just a Westword since the roared into the 1990s with the redevelop- on the bus (into Manhattan), and Roberts decade ago. While the Rocky Mountain mid-’80s, writing ment of its downtown and the debut of the calls me. ‘Hey, I want to do a story on News closed in 2009, nonprofit news agen- some of the paper’s Colorado Rockies, its baseball team. Long- Deborah Ramirez,’ ” the second woman cies like the Colorado Sun and Colorado biggest stories, before leaving last vacant warehouses became concert ven- who accused Supreme Court nominee Independent are now nipping at the hard year when his job ues, apartments, restaurants — and they Brett Kavanaugh of sexual harassment news Westword once had a monopoly on. turned into a web- needed a place to advertise. last fall. “And I think, ‘Fuck, she’s from “It’s not as robust as it used to be, but first writer slot. “It was a great time to be a sales rep,” Colorado. There goes my day.’ Thank God I don’t think people pick up Westword LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/ says Tobias, who started in 1993. “We sold the bus had WiFi.” and shake their head at the memory of HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Westword as a lifestyle resource. As sales- Calhoun travels a lot nowadays — to what it used to be,” says David Milstead, people, we killed it.” awards committee meetings, luncheons a business columnist for Canada’s Globe That cushion allowed the paper to and panel discussions around Denver, and Mail and president of the Denver continue to pursue ambitious stories. It road trips with friends (she and her Press Club, which elected Calhoun into its discovered that the Department of Justice friends own World’s Wonder View Tower, Hall of Fame in 2007. “But there are more had ignored a secret grand jury’s finding of a Depression-era roadside attraction in media voices now. That will make things environmental crimes at the former Rocky eastern Colorado said to be the highest tougher on Westword to be the alternative Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. Reporter point between Denver and Chicago). But voice. That’ll be a challenge.” Michael Roberts — who, while serving as with her laptop, she never stops working. Westword remains unfazed. During the paper’s music editor, once had a music So she can’t imagine retirement. a fundraiser last summer, Colorado promoter “threaten to throw me through a “First, I’d have to clean my office,” she Republican gubernatorial candidate glass plate window” for writing a negative says. “I’d have to find out what I’d like to Walker Stapleton denounced it as “phony calendar pick — earned praise for a media do next. And I still don’t know that.” news.” Calhoun had recently confronted criticism column. The paper won a James Westword has weathered its past decade him at a public event for not responding Beard award for restaurant criticism in better than its peers. It made national to Michael Roberts’ repeated requests for 2003, thanks to Jason Sheehan’s sprawl- news again in 2009 after putting out a call an interview; she wrote that Stapleton ing, acerbic reviews. for a pot critic (“Our first applicant replied “looked at me the way a bull calf must At its height in the late 1990s and within five minutes — fast work for a regard a castration knife.” early 2000s, Westword had an editorial stoner,” Calhoun wrote soon after. “Our first “I find the news about journalism in staff of about 20, and regularly clocked media response came a few minutes later the rest of the country incredibly depress- in at 160 pages a week, making it one of — really fast work for a journalist.”) ing,” Calhoun says. “Papers that started the fattest alt-weeklies in the country. It But soon after, the paper got caught when we started are closing. We grew up ran two features a week, along with a full- up in the controversy surrounding together. So I’m focusing on what we’re This story was funded page editorial cartoon and Calhoun’s own Backpage.com, a website owned by its doing, because we have more control than with reader donations column, simply titled “Calhoun,” which then-parent company Village Voice Media the forces around the country. Westword, to the High Country saw her opine on everything from political that critics accused of abetting human I’m hopeful.” News Research Fund.

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 PODCASTS ...

Desert Oracle desertoracle.com/ radio/ This podcast grew out of a self-published Indigenous comics push back against hackneyed stereotypes print quarterly by political blog- The ‘noble savage’ in comics is dead. Long live the Dakwäkãda Warriors ger Ken Layne, originally dis- BY TRISTAN AHTONE tributed only near his home in Joshua Tree, n 2016, Cole Pauls you’ve included versus what California. released Dakwäkãda was in the original story. I do “The Voice of the I Desert” examines the Warriors, a Southern think it’s important to show ways wild, harsh land- Tutchone language- your roots and tell people scapes inspire people, revival comic that stars where you’re coming from. I from the mythic to two Native “Power wrote Dakwäkãda Warriors the macabre to the Rangers” — Wolf and for Yukon Indigenous kids, mundane. The zine Raven — who battle an essentially. I wanted an has a cult following, evil pioneer and a cyborg Indigenous youth from and the new podcast, Sasquatch. In the origi- the Yukon — specifically notes New York nal comic, inspired by the Southern Tutchone — I want Magazine’s Heather Havrilesky, is “moody, Northwest Coast legend the kids in my hometown to concise, hilarious and “Raven Steals the Sun,” read this book and be like, really fucking weird.” Raven seeks to protect “Wow, I have an identity.” the sun from the villains, Media Indigena Cyber Nà’į and Space HCN: Are you seeing a change mediaindigena.com Kwäday Dän, who plot to when it comes to Indigenous This Indigenous steal it in order to thaw representations in com- current-affairs pod- out the woolly mammoths ics, zines and other graphic cast is funded solely frozen on one of Jupiter’s forms? by listeners. Based in moons and use them to CP: For sure. I think that in Canada, its mission attack the Earth. The the society we live in today, is to “share comic’s reception was so we have access to this sort stories which good that Pauls released of information through the keep Indige- a sequel in 2017, fol- nous peoples internet, and a lot of people lowed by a third issue, alive, in every are becoming more aware. I Dakwäkãda Warriors III, sense of the think that’s something that’s this year. A Tahltan First term.” The very unique to today’s culture, Nation comic artist, illus- last few episodes that we’re able to do that. I feature discussion of trator and printmaker read Michael Yahgulanaas’s a not-guilty verdict for from the Yukon Territory, Red: A Haida Manga when the white man who Pauls holds a BFA in it first came out in 2009, killed a young Native Illustration from Emily and that blew me away, that named Colten Boush- Carr University. His other someone would make a First ie, an arts exhibit comics include the series spanning 300 years Nations comic book. And then Pizza Punks and Astral of colonialism, and I read Gord Hill’s 500 years of Projection Comix. High why it’s misleading to Indigenous Resistance, and I Country News spoke with call Native languages was like, “Whoa, this is like Pauls about his work and “lost or dying.” a textbook.” It wasn’t just a his vision of how comics silly comic. outLANDish and Indigenous storytell- yourforestsyourfuture. ing traditions can work HCN: I think of ledger draw- org/listen.php together as Native com- COLE PAULS ings (narrative drawings A partnership headed munities access new ways try to stay really true to what an elder traditionally made on paper, cloth or hide) by the U.S. Forest to tell their stories. This interview has said because their voice is really pre- and I think of my tribe and the ledger Service, this podcast been edited for clarity and length. is part of the agency’s cious, so I haven’t seen a lot of people drawings we did. When you see them, you doing a retelling of an Indigenous story. realize they’re telling a story visually and “Your Forests Your Fu- High Country News: Do you see a lot of But I’m definitely not the only one; there often in sequence, and I think an argument ture” initiative, which people retelling traditional stories in aims to increase the have got to be others, like the Moonshot could be made that Indigenous people pio- Indigenous comics? relevance of public Indigenous Comics Collection. Those neered that. lands. Recent stories Cole Pauls: I would say there’s not a lot anthologies have some stories that are CP: I totally agree. A totem pole can tell include the great of us doing that. I feel like a lot of leg- traditional Native folklore, and I think a whole family story, and the same with American through- ends and First Nations stories are pro- some of them are riffing and retelling hikes, animal migra- a button blanket. It can explain some- tected — they’re stories that have been comic versions. tions and discoveries one’s entire clan. Masks, too; a lot of told for generations, and then we weren’t made in glaciers. masks can tell specific legends, and a lot allowed to share them. I feel like people HCN: Do you think there’s any sort of dan- JODI PETERSON of masks are only worn when they’re per- ger to reimagining these stories? formed with certain songs, because they’re Web Extra CP: I think it’s important to establish where See more and link to half the story. Comics are storytelling, podcasts at Tristan Ahtone is a member of the Kiowa Tribe you’re coming from when you’re doing and so is singing, and so is a huge long- hcn.org and associate editor of the High Country News something like that. Someone who doesn’t house mural — it’s portraying a story. tribal affairs desk.  @tahtone know the story may not realize what Read more online: hcne.ws/cole-pauls

10 High Country News December 24, 2018 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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Judith Anderson | Montrose, CA Carter & Peggy Bacon | Cambridge, MA Thank you, Research Fund donors, Ed Bangs | Helena, MT Laurence & Sherye Boylan | LeRoy, NY for helping us illuminate the West Mark Bowler | Idaho Springs, CO Ross Breyfogle | Denver, CO Rogene Buchholz | Denver, CO Since 1971, reader contributions have made Darcy James | Boise, ID Virginia M. Schnell | Pima, AZ Paul & Lee Buchmann | Cherry Hills Village, CO it possible for HCN to report on the American Mike & Leah McGinnis | Vail, AZ Kate & Charles Segerstrom | Sonora, CA Susan Buckingham | Denver, CO West. Your tax-deductible gift directly funds David & Pam Busch | Portland, OR nonprofit, independent journalism. Robert & Mary Neher | La Verne, CA Jeanette Smith | Gridley, CA W. Edward Nute | Inverness, CA Patricia Spoerl | Tucson, AZ Lynda M. Caine | Bozeman, MT Thank you for supporting our hard-working Margaret Sass | Denver, CO Keith L. Stickford | La Jara, NM Elizabeth & Kent Campbell | Tucson, AZ journalists. Gregory Smith | Spokane, WA Patricia Stone | Littleton, CO Dayle Cheever & Bud Phillips | San Diego, CA Mary Wright & Heron Stombock | Boulder, CO Philip & Eileen Taulbee | Las Cruces, NM Jeffrey L. Clark | Portland, OR INDEPENDENT MEDIA GUARDIAN George Zyvoloski | Savannah,GA Tim Welch | Littleton, CO Richard Cohen | Salt Lake City, UT Tom & Sonya Campion Fund, Seattle Foundation Fran Colwell | Placentia, CA for the Alaska Project | Seattle, WA Jerry Welsh | Eugene, OR BENEFACTOR John Whitmer | Bellingham, WA Linda Dahl | Evergreen, CO Anonymous (2) Barbara Willcox | Grass Valley, CA Jason & Dana Dedrick | Eugene, OR PUBLISHER’S CIRCLE Robert M. 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Hughes | Santa Fe, NM Las Cruces, NM Anonymous (9) Dianna Klineburger | Lynnwood, WA In memory of Philip J. James, Susan Kroes | Durango, CO In honor of Tony Henderson, park ranger, hero | a conservation hero | Palo Cedro, CA Susan & John Maus | Littleton, CO Fort Collins, CO In memory of Fred Anderson | In memory of Ed Marston Michl Fund, Community Foundation | Chevy Chase, MD Boulder, CO In memory of Ed Marston | In memory of Karen Childers | Louisiana, ID Gary T. Moore | Denver, CO Hotchkiss, CO In memory of Max & Janet Fowler | Bill & Claudia Page | La Madera, NM In memory of Joan Los Alamos, NM McClelland | Sedona, AZ Page Foundation | Hailey, ID In memory of Ed Marston | Denver, CO In memory of Tara Miller | Tricia Powell | Grand Junction, CO Laura Dixon & James Baker | Paonia, CO Elizabeth, CO Michael Prime | Los Alamos, NM Ken F. Kirkpatrick | Denver, CO In memory of Bill Ryder | E. Annie Proulx | Port Townsend, WA Dave & Jody Larson | Santa Fe, NM Petoskey, MI Kate & Charles Segerstrom | Sonora, CA Marjorie Siegel & Allen Hard | Batesville, VA Charles Simenstad | Seattle, WA LIVING BENEATH THE COLORADO PEAKS Betsy and Bud Knapp with Sarah Chase Shaw Dalton & Nancy Tarwater | Alto, NM 288 pages, large-format: $70. Knapp Press, 2018. Beverly Vasten-Wilson | Montrose, CO Vincent & Patty Wixon | Ashland, OR What’s next after you’ve conquered the luxury magazine publishing world Robert & Katy Zappala | Santa Barbara, CA and managed major philanthropic endeavors? For Bud and Betsy Knapp, publishers of Bon Appétit and Architectural Digest, the answer was clear: GUARANTOR Buy a ranch in the Vail Valley, build an exquisitely crafted lodge and cab- Anonymous | Tempe, AZ ins, raise organic vegetables — and then, write a book about it. Living Beneath the Rockies, written by the Knapps with Sarah Chase In memory of Betty and Paul Catterson | Pinecliffe, CO Shaw, walks readers through the couple’s vision for their mountain property and determination to develop in concert with the landscape. With In memory of Ted Smith & Emily Jackson | Los Angeles, CA stunning imagery from the Colorado Rockies and designs based on legendary alpine lodges, the book is something to drool over. In memory of Kate Woods | New Idria, CA Most of us mere mortals can never dream of owning this kind of land, Lanterns at Knapp Ranch provide just enough Julene Bair | Santa Rosa, CA but Knapp Ranch has done well by the local community, welcoming artists, illumination to mark the trail without obscuring the Emily Faulkner | Sandpoint, ID encouraging research on conservation, ecology and climate change, and crystalline brilliance of the Milky Way overhead. Rainer Hummel | Husum, WA hiring a full crew to tend the grounds and gardens. CARL SEGERSTROM TODD WINSLOW PIERCE www.hcn.org High Country News 11 Clearing fog from a late autumn storm, right, reveals fresh snow on New York Mountain above Lake Creek Valley. Far right, a red fox traverses the boundary between aspen forest and open meadow. TODD WINSLOW PIERCE

12 High Country News December 24, 2018 DEAR FRIENDS Holidays and the ‘Northern Circle’ Don & Sylvia Hay | Indio, CA Kurt Rusterholz | St. Paul, MN High Country News staff con- recommended if you’re in the Rick Helms | Fort Shaw, MT Liz Ryan | Santa Cruz, CA vened in Paonia, Colorado, for area. The same weekend, they Terry Hiatt | Enterprise, OR Bruce & Jill Sanchez | Seattle, WA our annual holiday party Dec. visited the Creamery Arts Andrea Holland | Glenwood Springs, CO Mark Saurer | Park City, UT 6. Those of us at our editorial Center in nearby Hotchkiss for Mike Holloway & Margie Gibson | Indian, AK Max & Gene Schloemer | Reno, NV satellite office in Gunnison were a fundraiser involving locally Bill & Maggie Hornsby | Alto, NM Angie Schmidt | Cheyenne, WY thrilled to visit our old roost crafted ceramic bowls and many Marcia Hudson | Monmouth, OR William Schmidt | Centennial, CO — and to see so many friends varieties of soup. Luna herself Dan Jones | EL Prado, NM Norm Schoenthal | Billings, MT and subscribers! It’s been c-c-c- just finished making a few ce- Micki Kaplan | Boulder, CO Ian & Alisa Schofield | Park City, UT COLD in Gunnison, so Paonia ramic mugs — perfect, perhaps, Bob Kiesling | Helena, MT Angeline Schrater & Richard White | Durango, CO felt downright balmy, despite for more buttered rum? Paul Layden | Fort Collins, CO Margo Schueler | Berkeley, CA recent snowfall. We warmed Associate Editor Paige Sue Leininger | Poway, CA Carol J. Schultz & Craig Adams | San Diego, CA up even more with drinks, Blankenbuehler’s piece “Cashing Tim Libassi | Wilson, WY Buz & Judith Sellers | Colorado Springs, CO snacks and great conversation, In On Standing Rock” (HCN, Suzanne Liles | Yellville, CA Aaron Setran | Davis, CA with folks from down the road 4/16/18) was among the Insti- and much farther away. The tute for Nonprofit News’ “Best Nancy & Karl Lillquist | Ellensburg, WA Eddie Shaw | Pittsburgh, PA office was packed and warmly of Nonprofit News” this year. Liz Maines | Santa Fe, NM Ron Shaw | Lander, WY lit with Christmas lights and The feature detailed how funds Cindy Marino | Montrose, CO Kirk Sherrill | Fort Collins, CO luminarias. raised by Veterans Stand for the Craig Markham | Dundee, OR William Shipp | Huntington Beach, CA Hawker-in-chief Brian #NoDAPL demonstrations in James T. Martin | Thousand Oaks, CA Patty Shreve | Salt Lake City, UT Calvert raffled off HCN water 2016 were squandered and mis- Matyas Matlo | Aurora, CO Jo Ann Silverstein | Boulder, CO bottles, yearlong subscription placed. Congrats to Paige! Robert Mayer & Carol Blackwell | Salt Lake City, UT Larry Simon | Pleasant Hill, CA vouchers and goat-imprinted Recent visitors include Doug Kay McAllister | Bozeman, MT Bruce & Barbara Sims | Huson, MT socks. He also thanked our Best and Denise Akert, from Tad McCall | Arlington, VA Tom Smith | Huntsville, AL growing subscriber base for Fairbanks, Alaska, who were Henry McCann | Oakland, CA Roz Spafford | Santa Cruz, CA sticking with us through a vola- delighted by the amount of win- Janet Winniford & Daniel McCool | Ogden, UT William Spencer | Boulder, CO tile, crucial moment in Ameri- ter sun Paonia gets. Doug, who Patrick McCormack | Portland, OR Gary & Mary Garrow Splittberger | Billings, MT can journalism — the subject lives in a cabin he built himself, Marta Middleton | Swarthmore, PA John Stansfield | Monument, CO of this issue. We’re grateful to recently upgraded his outhouse, Joan E. Miller | Seattle, WA Tory Starr | Sacramento, CA all who read, support and write replacing a porcelain seat he Lance & Linda Millspaugh | Twain Harte, CA Marilyn Starrett | Denver, CO to us, and we enjoyed spend- called “the Northern Circle” Bill Mitchem | Rangely, CO Sara Steinhoffer | San Diego, CA ing time with you at the party. with a foam seat “to keep the Sharon Moddelmog | Arvada, CO Charlie Stinson | Weed, CA And if you couldn’t make it, cold off.” Doug shares his print Ann Moore | Albuquerque, NM Harold H. Stowell | Tuscaloosa, AL don’t worry; we saved you each subscription with Denise and Mary Moran & Dennis Silva | Moab, UT Steven Strong | Bend, OR a slice of pizza! We’re overnight her husband, and Denise, who Tish Morris | Albuquerque, NM Gene F. Summers | Black Earth, WI shipping them straight to your is originally from Switzerland, Betty Moseley | Fort Collins, CO Harry & MaryAnn Taylor | Wheat Ridge, CO mailboxes, so warm up your mi- purchased a gift sub for her Kim-Nora Moses | Porlock, England Harold Teasdale | Marine on St. Croix, MN crowaves. brother, who still lives there. William Mueller | Layton, UT Gene & Deb Theriault | Casper, WY The Saturday after the Thanks for your support! Earl E. Myers | Arvada, CO Brian Thomann | Littleton, CO party, Associate Photo Editor We’re taking an issue break James C. Nelson | Magdalena, NM Peter Thomas & Rosie Andrews | Berkeley, CA Luna Anna Archey, editorial fel- for the holidays, so you won’t Pamela Nelson | Warner Springs, CA Richmond & Sarah Thomason | Chelsea, MI low Jessica Kutz and editorial see us in print until the New Bonnie & Kiyoshi Nishikawa | Carson City, NV Bruce & Kathy Thompson | Arlington, WA intern Elena Saavedra Buckley Year. Come January, we’ll have Lori Sandstedt | Morrison, CO Thomas R. Thompson | Santa Fe, NM went cross-country skiing on a new intern, new stories and Grand Mesa with friends. Luna an editorial Oregon meet-up in Ann Northrup | Moab, UT Wayne Thompson | Tucson, AZ tested out her new second-hand the works, so expect an exciting James & Gail Nystrom | Elk River, MN Nancy & Bill Tiederman | Bainbridge Island, WA skis, while Jessica and Elena series of “Dear Friends”! We Greg Parsons | Wheat Ridge, CO William M. Tierney | McGrath, AK made their sticky rentals whiz hope you have happy holidays Karrin Peterson | Redmond, WA Jeremy Toby | El Granada, CA along as fast as they could. The and a restful New Year, and Kirk Peterson | Oakland, CA John & Carol Tone | Denver, CO trio warmed up with buttered we’ll see you in 2019. Susan B. Peterson | Salt Lake City, UT The Torf Family | Evergreen, CO rum from the recently reopened —Elena Saavedra Buckley, William Porter | Las Vegas, NV James & Gael Treible | Danville, CA Grand Mesa Lodge — highly for the staff Julia & Greg Powell | Salida, CO Zack Tripp & Alia Strong | Carbondale, CO Michael Powers | Berkeley, CA Joe Trudeau & Amber Fields | Prescott, AZ Merton Preston | Santa Rosa, CA Teresa Urbanowski | Wheat Ridge, CO Nicholas Psarakis | Colorado Springs, CO Theresa Vaughn | Denver, CO Steve Reed | Draper, UT Joel G. Vignere | Lakeside, MT Brian & Carol Reid | Tucson, AZ Don Wall | Ames, IA Josh Rice | Woody Creek, CO Edward Wallhagen | Albuquerque, NM Bruce Richardson | Boulder, CO Brad Webb | Bozeman, MT Matilda Rickard | Goodyear, AZ Joel Weeks | Livermore, CA Carol Rigmark & Thomas A. Byrnes | Corrales, NM Marvyl Wendt | Tucson, AZ Marianna Riser | Novato, CA Kath Weston | Charlottesville, VA Gerry A. Roberts | Arvada, CO Willow Canyon Outdoor Co. | Kanab, UT Jacquelyn Robins | Albuquerque, NM Nancy Wolff | St. Maries, ID Clint Rogel | Spokane, WA Dave Worley | Reno, NV Pat & Pam Rollison | Saratoga, WY Randy & Dandrea Worrall | Ashton, ID Edward Romero | Santa Fe, NM Kon Wyatt | Golden, CO Carl Romnes | Dulce, NM Bill Yake | Olympia, WA John Rosenberg | Tumwater, WA Lynn Yamaoka | Torrance, CA Jacqelen Ruben | Woodland Hills, CA Gary Zadra | Superior, WY Publisher Paul Larmer attempts to wrap Editor-in-chief Brian Calvert’s Sheryl Russell | Rio Rancho, NM extended remarks at the holiday party. LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 Blooms in the Desert As the ecosystem of news changes, will journalists adapt fast enough?

ifteen years ago, High Country News sent more communities are finding themselves ues, observers ask, how will local journal- its then-field editor, Ray Ring, out to in- without a daily newspaper, forced to ism survive? vestigate how well the West’s local media rely on a single weekly or without any Even long-established legacy media were covering the region. Back then, the paper at all. These are the West’s “news are struggling, decimated by staff cuts storms that have since buffeted the na- deserts,” where local reporting is often imposed by corporate owners and private- tion’s media had yet to fully hit, but the sparse, inconsistent or completely nonex- equity firms in response to plummeting warning clouds were on the horizon, and istent. readership, declining ad revenue and the Ring, who had previously worked as a The Expanding News Desert, a report relentless push to maximize profits for staff reporter on two daily newspapers, from the Center for Innovation and Sus- owners and investors. In city after city, came back with some alarming news. tainability in Local Media at the Univer- reporters struggle to meet deadlines with “It’s often said that we’re in some golden sity of North Carolina’s School of Media less time, fewer resources and increasing FEATURE BY Information Age,” he wrote, “with more and Journalism this year, found that the demands to file stories round-the-clock news available than ever before, thanks 11 Western states, plus Alaska and Ha- for social media and online editions. KENTON BIRD to cable TV, the Internet, specialty maga- waii, lost 48 dailies and 157 weeklies be- While good, sometimes outstanding work zines and other burgeoning news sources. tween 2004 and 2018. Forty-six counties is still being done even at the hardest-hit But the foundation of the news-gathering in the region now lack a local newspaper. newspapers, the bread-and-butter cover- system, the daily papers, is shaky.” In some cases, the report notes, only age of government, politics and public Today, the foundations are not just “ghost papers” remain, mere shadows of issues is already suffering, becoming shaky; they are crumbling. More and their former selves. If this trend contin- thinner almost everywhere.

14 High Country News December 24, 2018 Deprived of the comprehensive local encumbered by the fixed costs of legacy eastern Oregon. coverage that daily papers once provided, media organizations and therefore less He took over the Malheur Enter- citizens are less informed and increas- threatened by faltering revenue streams. prise and reinvigorated the 109-year-old ingly ill-equipped to hold their elected “A range of entrepreneurs — from jour- weekly with a commitment to local news, officials accountable. This kind of watch- nalists at televisions stations to found- including the kind of hard-hitting reports dog journalism was not common in many ers of digital sites — are experimenting rarely seen in small-town papers. But small towns and mid-sized cities, but the with new business models and new ways Zaitz’s time in eastern Oregon’s wide- metro dailies once set the agenda for ra- of providing local news to hundreds of open spaces turned out to be brief. In dio and television newsrooms, often lead- communities that have lost their local September, he launched an online news ing the way in local coverage. Today, that newspapers,” Abernathy wrote. “Most site, Salem Reporter, in Oregon’s capital. is becoming increasingly rare. ventures, however, are clustered around “I didn’t need another project, especially “As newspapers vanish and read- major metro areas.” In contrast to the one 300 miles from my ranch,” Zaitz told ers drop off, an increasing number of news deserts of the rural West, these me- me recently. Then a prominent Salem Americans are living without a reliable dia oases are reinventing journalism with businessman invited him to provide a and comprehensive source of local news,” a distinctive local flavor. new voice in the Willamette Valley, Or- the University of North Carolina report warns. The report defines a news desert as “a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level.” According to the UNC analysis, the Pacific and Mountain states now have 46 news deserts, a figure that includes 13 sparsely populated boroughs or census units in Alaska, which does not have counties. “Our sense of community and our trust in democracy at all levels suffer when journalism is lost or diminished,” wrote Penelope Muse Abernathy, the Knight chair in journalism and digital media economics at UNC, who oversaw the research for the 104-page report and its accompanying website. In the West, coverage is indeed shrinking. Wyoming and Arizona still have a newspaper in every county, but Colorado has four counties without newspapers, while Idaho has seven. In Idaho, weeklies in neighboring counties provide some local coverage, but the hometown, county-seat paper has vanished from the fast-growing state’s rural areas. Mean- while, many Western counties are at risk of losing their only remaining newspapers. The report identifies 185 such sin- “It’s not all doom and gloom,” said egon’s population center. Now, Zaitz is p Les Zaitz, gle-newspaper counties in the 13 Pacific Greg Hanscom, the former executive edi- overseeing three reporters and a state- longtime and Rocky Mountain states — 34 of them tor of Crosscut, an online news site that house bureau, emphasizing the kinds of investigative in Montana alone. partners with Seattle’s public TV station, enterprise stories he once reported on for reporter for The The closure of three major metro and a former editor of HCN. “Hundreds of the Oregonian. Oregonian, retired from his daily dailies in the West — Denver, Colorado’s new models for journalism have sprung Publishing online enabled the Report- newspaper job, then Rocky Mountain News, Washington’s up.” er to quickly find a foothold in Salem’s went on to found Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Arizona’s Whether these startups will thrive, media market at a time when The States- an online news site, Tucson Citizen — made headlines in just get by or wither away remains an man Journal, Salem’s daily, has cut staff Salem Reporter. 2009. (Though The Post-Intelligencer open question. Without them, however, and scaled back coverage. Without the Here, he leads a continues as an online-only publication, the picture would be even grimmer. These up-front costs of a traditional newspaper, training session for it does so with a skeleton crew, follow- outlets — old and new — have had to The Reporter can offer $10-a-month sub- journalists on source ing layoffs earlier this year, making it develop inventive survival strategies to scriptions, enabling it to fill in the news development. TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ what you might call the online ghost of bloom in today’s harsh media landscape. gaps left by The Journal, which is owned FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS the ghost of a newspaper.) Still, Denver Here, we present four of those strategies. by the Gannett Company, a publicly trad- and Seattle (and Tucson, to a lesser ex- ed national corporation with total assets t Vicki Rubin reads tent) have potentially high numbers of DIG DEEP, BUT DIG FAST last year of over $2.5 billion. the final edition of investors, donors, journalists and audi- Les Zaitz thought he was done with daily “A startup is not necessarily encum- the Rocky Mountain ences to support new media startups. journalism in 2016, when he retired bered by the costs of legacy publications, News in a Denver coffeeshop Feb. 27, The West’s small towns and rural areas from The Oregonian, where he’d been an such as building and printing costs,” said 2009. The competing lack that advantage. Instead, these com- award-winning investigative reporter. At Damian Radcliffe, a journalism professor daily, The Denver munities risk losing critical information the time, Zaitz, a Pulitzer finalist who at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Post, continues to when a newspaper closes or merges with reported huge stories for Oregon’s larg- 66 miles from Salem. An online news site publish, but has had a neighboring county’s publication. Few est newspaper, from the 1980 eruption to can be “agile in beats to cover and topics major staff cuts. entrepreneurs or startup editors see their Mount St. Helens to more recent block- to explore” without the obligations of the MATTHEW STAVER/ BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY future in the Western news deserts. busters on the emergence of Mexican paper of record, Radcliffe said. IMAGES The disappearance of traditional drug cartels, told readers he was stepping Zaitz said he wants the Reporter to media has been somewhat buffered by away from the job to edit two family- provide a blend of breaking news and the rise of digital-only news sites, un- owned weeklies from a remote ranch in Please see Blooms, page 18

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 2016 election results and Newspaper closure or News deserts of the West median household income merger since 2004 $26,000 - $45,000 Even in densely populated areas, Weekly Daily news coverage can be sparse. $45,001 - $65,000 Number of papers serving $65,001+ Paper ownership 0 - 10,000 people news desert - no newspapers $26,000 - $45,000 Public Private Investment

one newspaper $45,001 - $65,000 Digital news sites multiple newspapers $65,001+

Serving 10,001 - 50,000 people news desert - no newspapers one newspaper

multiple newspapers

Serving 50,001 - 150,000 people news desert - no newspapers one newspaper

multiple newspapers

Serving 150,001+ people news desert - no newspapers one newspaper multiple newspapers

County population divided by number of newspapers publishing in each county. Counties with only one paper are especially at risk of becoming news deserts.

Alaska not to scale

Rural areas can be hit hardest ... But many small-town papers persevere edia chatter about the state of journalism tends to go big — big city, that is: Seattle Mloses a major daily; a media conglomerate lays off hundreds of people in dozens of cities; deep cuts by the Denver Post’s hedge-fund owners spark a mutiny. But urban news woes often have a silver lining, with nonprofits and online-only outlets replacing at least some of what was lost. What about the newspapers and weeklies that serve the large, sparsely populated expanses of the rural West? From their cramped small-town offices, these papers serve not only as sources of information, but also community pillars — local institutions. When they fold, often after publishing every week without fail for decades, they are rarely replaced by anything more substantial than a community bulletin board on Facebook. The Expanding News Desert report — as its name makes clear — paints a grim picture. The urban news industry might be struggling, but it has folded altogether in rural counties across the West. Yet there CO not to scale are still reasons to celebrate, despite the report’s overall bleakness. Some of the nation’s most rural areas have held on to their newspapers, and even have more than one, giving them per capita coverage unmatched by much bigger metro areas. In small towns across the West, dozens of tiny staffs — often consisting of little more than the publisher and her spouse — pound out stories about county and town meetings, elections, weddings, births and deaths, week after week, without paid vacations, health insurance and 401(k)s, often bombarded by angry mail and ever-rising production costs. Nevertheless, they persist, even as their urban compatriots give in. JONATHAN THOMPSON

1616 Highigh Country Newsews Date,December 2014 24, 2018 2016 election results and Newspaper closure or median household income merger since 2004 $26,000 - $45,000 Even in densely populated areas, Weekly Daily news coverage can be sparse. $45,001 - $65,000 Where the news is drying up Number of papers serving $65,001+ Paper ownership 0 - 10,000 people — and where it’s not news desert - no newspapers $26,000 - $45,000 Public Private Investment one newspaper $45,001 - $65,000 Digital news sites UTAH’s most populous county, Salt Lake, has only four newspapers, serving an average of 567,825 multiple newspapers $65,001+ readers each, the lowest papers-per-capita in the West that’s not considered a news desert. Serving 10,001 - 50,000 people news desert - no newspapers Utah, with the nation’s youngest population, lost 17 weeklies to closure or mergers in the last 14 one newspaper years, and total overall circulation dropped by a multiple newspapers whopping 45 percent, one of the steepest declines anywhere. The news industry officially dried up Serving 50,001 - 150,000 people in a cluster of counties in southern Utah, but The news desert - no newspapers Insider continues to publish weekly community one newspaper news about Wayne and Garfield counties. multiple newspapers ARIZONA newspapers have taken a big hit in the last decade OREGON lost a total of 19 papers (17 weeklies Serving 150,001+ people or so, with overall circulation sliding from 1.7 million to just and two dailies) and saw total circulation drop 700,000. from 1.4 million to 790,000, or 41 percent. news desert - no newspapers one newspaper Sometimes the death of a newspaper is celebrated as much as Oregon has seen total newspaper readership multiple newspapers mourned. Witness the Tombstone Tumbleweed, which ceased plummet, but a number of online publications, publication in 2006 because owner Chris Simcox — founder of the mostly based in the Portland area, have cropped up County population divided by number of Minutemen, a militant anti-immigration group, and now a convicted to fill the void. TheRecord-Courier in Baker County newspapers publishing in each county. Counties sex offender — was too busy harassing border-crossers and ginning (“From the Blue Mountains to Hells Canyon”) with only one paper are especially at risk of up hatred to keep the paper running. Simcox, who purchased unexpectedly fell silent in 2016 due to the publisher’s becoming news deserts. the paper in 2002, had transformed it into a mouthpiece for his failing health; it had been publishing since 1901. “citizens border patrol” movement. NEW MEXICO lost two weeklies and three dailies and saw total circulation drop from 510,000 to 350,000 (30 percent). Alaska not to scale NEVADA: Circulation has remained steady at 1.3 million. Shrinking population — and revenues — left the If numbers alone are any indication, Nevada’s news industry is the Raton Range “saddled with so much debt that it West’s healthiest. It lost only four newspapers, two weeklies and would take the glory days of advertising revenue two dailies between 2004 and 2018, and its only news desert lies to pay it back,” according to a letter from the in Esmeralda County, which has less than one person per square publisher in 2013. Colfax County officially became mile. Newspaper circulation, meanwhile, held steady; weeklies lost a news desert when it shut down that year, but a whopping 180,000 readers, a bad sign for rural areas, but dailies the World Journal, based just over the border in offset most of that by gaining 140,000 readers. Colorado, is working to fill the void. COLORADO: The top 25 newspaper owners nationally own 37 of the state’s 121 papers.

Saguache County is large in area (3,170 square miles), small in population (6,100), and supports not one, but two newspapers. The Saguache Crescent is in its 137th year, and publisher, editor, reporter and pressman Dean Coombs continues to typeset the entire paper on a linotype, printing on an ancient letterpress from the cluttered offices on Saguache’s main drag. The weekly Silverton Standard & the Miner hasn’t missed an issue since the first edition of theLa Plata Miner rolled off the press in 1875. The paper survived the death of the mining industry and the resulting population plunge. It was bought by an outside media conglomerate in 2006, but local ownership resumed when the San Juan County Historical Society CO not to scale took over in 2009. It continues to serve as the paper of record for the county’s 700 or so residents.

Newspaper closures, mergers and circulation 2004-2018

IDAHO WASHINGTON CALIFORNIA WYOMING MONTANA ALASKA Lost 10 weeklies and one daily Lost 11 weeklies and Lost a total of 73 Lost four papers, all Lost three weeklies. Lost nine weeklies. and circulation newspaper to closures or mergers. three dailies. Circulation newspapers, (31 dailies and weeklies. Circulation Circulation dropped dropped by more than half from Newspaper circulation fell by 31 dropped from 2.5 million 42 weeklies). plunged 34 percent, from from 400,000 to 300,000 to 140,000. No online percent, from 410,000 in 2004, to to 1.6 million, or 37 Circulation has plummeted 240,000 to 150,000. 310,000. news organizations are based in 280,000 in 2018. percent. from 13 million to 8 million. Alaska.

INFOGRAPHIC BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY / SOURCES: U.S. NEWS DESERTS REPORT, UNC SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND JOURNALISM BY PENELOPE MUSE ABERNATHY; U.S. CENSUS BUREAU {IDAHO, MONTANA, ALASKA, OREGON, NEVADA, CALIFORNIA, AND WASHINGTON USE 5-YEAR POPULATION ESTIMATE; UTAH, NEW MEXICO, WYOMING, COLORADO, AND ARIZONA USE CURRENT POPULATION ESTIMATE); FREEVECTOR MAPS.COM www.hcn.org Highigh Country Newsews 1717 Blooms, continued from page 15 Yamhill Valley News-Register in nearby kind of profit from the Sun,” Coolidge McMinnville, has been closely watching. said. “These are pure grants.” enterprise stories. His three reporters — “My overall impression is that The Re- The Sun must find its niche in a all new to Salem but with experience at porter is a much richer source of serious crowded marketplace, which includes The Western newspapers — cover education, news content you can’t get elsewhere,” Post’s print and online editions, the estab- business, local government and state poli- said Bagwell, an editor for The States- lished alternative weekly, Westword (see tics. “That’s the beauty of starting from man Journal in the 1980s. “Virtually all page 6); newer digital start-ups like The scratch,” Zaitz said. “There’s no script for stories explore a serious news issue, and Colorado Independent and The Denverite, what we’re covering and how.” many of them appear to be exclusive.” and specialty websites like Chalkbeat The Reporter’s startup money came The Statesman Journal, the established Colorado, which covers education, and from a Salem real estate developer, Larry daily paper, relies instead on a much The Athletic, which focuses on sports. Is Tokarski, who reached out to Zaitz in broader range of material, Bagwell said, there even room in the mix for another 2017. “He asked me, ‘Why don’t you come including sports and feature content, and online publication? Sun Editor Larry back to Salem? We’re unhappy with the has made no noticeable changes in cover- Ryckman thinks so. “We decided early lack of local news.’ ” Zaitz accepted and age in response to its new competition. on that we are not trying to recreate The began planning the Reporter’s online Zaitz said, “I could be imagining this, Denver Post,” said Ryckman, who leads a launch, which came on Sept. 17. “Read- but the local daily appears much quicker staff of 10 reporters and editors who left ers have responded strongly to our brand on the trigger on breaking news. Now, it the Post this year. “The Sun aims to do of local journalism with encouragement, feels more like a true horse race to see deep, meaningful stories that others can’t ‘Attaboys,’ and story tips,” Zaitz said. He who can get there first.” do, or can’t do as much of because of staff is surprised by how many readers com- cuts, or won’t do. Our focus is bringing mit to the $100 annual subscription fee, BREAK FREE, START FRESH understanding to people, places and poli- rather than the $10 monthly charge. At nearly the same time The Reporter tics of Colorado.” Zaitz declined to disclose the number of went live in Salem, The Colorado Sun University of Colorado journalism subscribers. However, he said, “since I debuted in Denver. The Sun, staffed professor Pat Ferrucci says The Sun has planned on no paid subscribers for six by former reporters and editors of The so far succeeded in that goal. When a new Larry Ryckman, who months, we’re way ahead.” Denver Post, joins a much more crowded outlet is started by people who formerly started The Colorado A week after the Reporter’s debut, it media mix in Colorado’s capital city. worked at legacy media organizations, Sun along with other joined a 4-year-old state capital bureau The nonprofit Sun’s emergence was they tend to imitate the coverage of their former Denver Post founded by two other Oregon companies, closely followed, because it began with previous organization, he said. “From my reporters and editors, EO Media Group and Pamplin Media a startup grant from the Civil Media reading of the first month of The Sun, outside the downtown Denver building Group. EO Media owns 11 newspapers, Company, which describes itself as “the they’re covering things a bit differently,” where he once worked. including The Capital Press, a regional decentralized marketplace for sustain- at greater length and with more context, Earlier this year, agricultural weekly, and the East Or- able journalism.” Civil’s public offering of Ferrucci said. For example, a feature about the Post vacated the egonian in Pendleton. Pamplin owns cryptocurrency (called tokens) to support how Colorado’s ski resorts make snow dur- building and relocated the twice-weekly Portland Tribune and independent news ventures fell short of ing drought years connected an environ- to its printing plant 24 other, mostly suburban, newspapers. expectations in late October, but the com- mental issue to the state’s economy. in the suburbs. Zaitz became the bureau chief. “The crew pany’s marketing director, Matt Coolidge, Meanwhile, Denver Post Editor Lee Below right, Denver has already scored solid beats,” he said, said that won’t affect funding for The Sun Ann Colacioppo says that while her pa- Post Editor Lee Ann citing stories about the Oregon secre- or a dozen other journalistic ventures per has weathered some tough years, it Colacioppo, center, talks with journalists tary of State’s health issues and the two supported by Civil. (None of the others continues to support one of Colorado’s in the Post’s new office. $1 million campaign contributions a can- are in the West.) Civil provided a startup largest news operations, and the paper LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/ didate for governor received. grant to The Sun but is not involved in is now filling vacant positions. “We are HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Steve Bagwell, managing editor of the its operations. “We’re not looking for any bringing in people who wanted to be at

18 High Country News December 24, 2018 Lynda Mapes, longtime environmental reporter for the Seattle Times, on a NOAA vessel with researchers who are studying southern resident killer whales in Central Puget Sound, November 2018. STEVE RINGMAN/THE SEATTLE TIMES The Post and are excited to work at a pa- ception that The Post was dying. “We are the slimmed-down product. “We decided per of this size,” she said. anything but,” Colacioppo said. “Being Ryckman says the Colorado Sun is The Post continues to excel in its cov- able to reimagine who we were brought eager to promote good local journalism early on that erage of Colorado politics, energy issues, new life to the place.” The paper remains “wherever we find it,” even at his former housing and real estate and recreation, committed to covering breaking news and employer, the Denver Post. “News is no we are not she said. Critical coverage of its owner, a major enterprise stories, she said. longer a zero-sum game,” he explained. trying to hedge-fund company called Alden Capi- Corey Hutchins, journalist in resi- “Complement is the new compete.” tal, and the high-profile resignation of the dence at Colorado College, said that the recreate The paper’s editorial-page editor, led to a per- new hires at the Post, especially those STAY TRUE TO YOUR ROOTS covering politics, led to better coverage of — AND YOUR BEATS Denver Post. the 2018 election. “It’s kind of a bizarre This summer, Lynda Mapes’ beat took twist to the new startup story,” said her from Puget Sound to the Palouse The Sun aims Hutchins, who writes about media issues hills of eastern Washington. These two to do deep, for Columbia Journalism Review and locations are linked by chinook salmon, The Colorado Independent. “In a weird essential food for the orcas of the Salish meaningful way, the hedge fund that owns the Post is Sea. The chinook’s spawning grounds are responsible for all this bloodletting inad- hundreds of miles inland, on tributaries stories that vertently created more political reporting of the Columbia and Snake rivers, so the in Colorado.” fate of the salmon plays into a larger re- others can’t Alden Capital, which operates news- gional debate over agriculture, barge traf- do, or can’t papers through its Digital First Media fic on the rivers and hydroelectric power company, has faced deep criticism, in- generation. do as much cluding vocal protests from former em- An environmental reporter for The ployees, for the deep cuts it has made to Seattle Times since 1997, Mapes has of because of newsrooms. The UNC report, in a chapter considerable expertise about the region’s staff cuts, or titled “The Enduring Legacy of Our New endangered species and a rich network Media Barons,” documented Digital First’s of sources to draw from. Since July, her won’t do.” path of acquisitions, mergers, closures and coverage has focused on the plight of the cost-cutting. At last count, the company southern resident family of orcas, iconic —Larry Ryckman, editor owns 158 newspapers in 12 states — marine mammals that symbolize Seattle’s of The Colorado Sun, down from 208 papers just four years ear- special relationship to the Pacific Ocean. started by former Denver Post reporters and editors lier. California has 76 Digital First papers So when Orca J35 — locally known as (23 dailies and 53 weeklies), the most of “Tahlequah” — carried her dead calf on any state, while Colorado has eight dailies her head for 17 days before rejoining her and eight weeklies. Company-wide circu- pod, Mapes was on the scene almost from lation fell by one-third, from 4.6 million to the beginning, reporting from Friday 3.2 million, in that same period, according Harbor on San Juan Island and racing to to the UNC report, as readers let sub- file stories across choppy waters, on small scriptions lapse or simply lost interest in boats and ferries—even an inflatable

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 Zodiac raft. At times, she had to text her she said. “It is the only way to ever really No News is Bad News copy from a cellphone. (“I’m lucky; I don’t know anything. Otherwise, I feel like I get seasick,” Mapes told me.) am listening through a wall.” for Public Health Mapes was uniquely qualified to re- Mapes found the orca story particu- port on this story, says Don Shelton, The larly challenging. She spent hours on very holiday season, tens of thousands of people flock Times’ executive editor. “Her coverage of boats with whale-watching scientists, E to Southern California’s Disneyland Resort to see the the mother orca resonated locally, region- who had to be “the right kind of scientists holiday light displays and the jolly costumed characters. ally and worldwide because of the depth for whom their work required getting But just days before Christmas 2014, an uninvited visitor of her knowledge and her hard work.” close to the whales.” Tahlequah’s saga stalked the park: measles. Within a month, more than The enormous public interest in J35 was emotionally and physically draining, 50 cases had spread across the nation. As public health and her calf kept Mapes on the story for too, she said. “All those stories were like experts worked to trace the outbreak, they looked to local weeks. Shelton said the orcas captivated that — chasing daylight and deadlines news coverage to help understand how it spread. readers around the world. From July 24 to and cell service.” “Local news agencies often know before a state Aug. 7, The Times’ coverage drew 3.32 mil- Beat reporting is fundamental to leg- department of public health does about an outbreak lion page views, 1,273 story comments and acy media like The Seattle Times, which going on in their neighborhood,” said Maimuna Majum- 1.31 million interactions on Facebook. was founded in 1891 and is now the dom- der, a fellow at Harvard University’s Health Policy Data But the work of a beat reporter is inant newspaper in the Northwest, with Science lab, who used local media reports to track the never done, and the death of a 3-year-old a daily circulation of about 200,000 and measles outbreak and model the impact that vaccination orca, J50, in mid-September — the third a Sunday circulation of 270,000. It has rates had on its spread. As local newsrooms shrink and casualty in four months, renewed ques- been controlled since 1896 by the Blethen shutter, researchers have a harder time tracking out- tions about the future of the Salish Sea’s family, which owns 50.5 percent of the breaks and communicating public health warnings. orca population, which has dropped to 74 company’s stock. Mapes praised the fam- Majumder’s work is part of a 12-year-old program individuals. To help readers better un- ily’s commitment to independent journal- called Health Map, which scours the internet to provide derstand the decline, Mapes traveled to ism. “It sounds corny, but local ownership up-to-the-minute information on disease outbreaks. Garfield County in southeastern Washing- is our secret sauce,” Mapes said. During the 2014 measles outbreak, Majumder said, local ton. There, she examined the arguments media sources had more frequent counts on disease cases for and against removing four dams on EMBRACE HEALTHY COMPETITION than public health agencies, and they gave researchers the lower Snake River, where salmon and Where the sagebrush of the Snake River important context about the communities where outbreaks steelhead populations — a major source of Plain meets the foothills of the central occurred. And after the Zika outbreak in 2016, researchers food for orcas — have fallen dramatically. Idaho mountains, a 21st century boom- at Stony Brook University compared how The New York Interviewing representatives of farm town is the scene of the West’s latest, and Times and Tampa Bay Times covered the spreading dis- groups, the Bonneville Power Adminis- possibly last, showdown between two ease. They concluded that the local paper was more than tration and the Nez Perce Tribe, Mapes printed daily newspapers. twice as likely to provide readers with information about provided a comprehensive yet concise Unlike similar-sized cities, which how to protect themselves from the disease. overview of the dams versus salmon de- have seen papers close, merge or slash In rural areas that already struggle with doctor bate. Climate change has contributed to news staffs, Idaho’s capital city, Boise, is shortages, the loss of rural news also cuts into readers’ declining salmon populations, she wrote, enjoying a journalism revival. The Idaho knowledge of important health issues. “When you talk but the scientific consensus increasingly Press, based 21 miles away, in Nampa, about outbreaks, it’s crucial local journalists get the infor- supports removing the dams. has claimed a beachhead in Boise, chal- mation out,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at John Rocky Barker, an HCN contribu- lenging the long-dominant Idaho States- Hopkins University Center for Health Security. tor who recently retired after 22 years man on its home turf. Without a local paper, more people are relying on as an environmental reporter for The “Only a handful of towns have com- social media. “There’s no information vacuum in today’s Idaho Statesman in Boise, closely follows peting dailies, and we’re lucky to be one media world, because it’s been filled with social media,” Mapes’ reporting. “The reason so many of them,” says Seth Ashley, an associate said Yotam Ophir, a health communication researcher people care about the orcas is because professor of communication at Boise at University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy of her amazing work,” he said. “She is a State University. Since June, several Center. But that can be one of the biggest problems great storyteller, knows her subject so thousand Boise residents have snapped during disease outbreaks, because “social media during well and puts in details that other people up $10-per-month subscriptions for home epidemics is full of misinformation and rumors.” On the miss.” Earlier this year, Barker and delivery of the Idaho Press. other hand, he said, “A responsible news reporter, who Mapes traveled around the Northwest Boise and Nampa are part of the has dedicated her life to health reporting, can weed out together, giving programs titled “Tale of Treasure Valley, where nearly 40 percent misinformation.” CARL SEGERSTROM Two Rivers.” Mapes described the remov- of Idaho’s 1.68 million people live, in two al of a dam on the Elwha River in west- counties along Interstate 84. Boise was ern Washington, while Barker assessed tagged by Forbes in early 2018 as the the prospects for breaching the Snake fastest-growing city in the United States, River dams. its growth driven in part by tech workers That kind of in-depth knowledge and fleeing high housing prices elsewhere in beat reporting makes a difference. Rachel the West. Clark, a writer and educator in Moscow, The newspaper rivalry pits two na- Idaho, praised Mapes’ commitment to the tional media chains against each other. orca story. “Because of her instrumental California-based McClatchy acquired role at a large regional newspaper, she The Statesman in 2006 when it bought is able to reach the audiences necessary Knight-Ridder’s 32 papers. The Seattle- to generate the public outcry we need to based Pioneer News Group sold what was save this highly endangered populations then the Idaho Press-Tribune and several of whales — and the ecosystem they, and other Idaho papers to the Adams Publish- we, depend on.” ing Group of Minneapolis in 2017. (The And that kind of knowledge is hard- West’s only other similar two-newspaper earned. Mapes spent five years as the city is Salt Lake, where the Salt Lake Tri- Olympia correspondent for The (Spokane) bune and Deseret News share advertising, Spokesman-Review before moving to The production and circulation staffs under The Salt Lake Tribune included a Pat Bagley cartoon as part of Times to cover science, the environment one of the last joint-operating agreements its coverage of the Disneyland measles outbreak. and tribal nations. The key to her suc- in the country.) PAT BAGLEY/THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE VIA CAGLECARTOONS.COM cess? “Being there, wherever ‘there’ is,” A collaborative relationship between

20 High Country News December 24, 2018 The Statesman (founded in 1864) and Idaho Press-Tribune (whose history goes back to 1883) soured within a few months of The Press-Tribune’s ownership change. Now, The Press, renamed in mid- summer as part of its planned expansion into Boise, aggressively promotes its six-day-per-week print edition with the slogan, “Local news worth holding.” The seven-day-a-week Statesman emphasizes breaking news online while reserving its print edition for longer features and enterprise stories. So far, The Statesman enjoys a commanding lead in circulation, reporting 32,733 subscribers in Septem- ber, compared to The Press’ 18,064. But The Press’ latest report showed it added nearly 3,000 more subscribers over the 12-month average. Economic necessity drives each paper’s strategy. After Adams bought The Press-Tribune, McClatchy asked the Nampa paper to lower the charge for printing the Statesman. When Adams re- fused, the Statesman found a new printer — the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho, owned by another chain, Lee Enterprises. Printing in Twin Falls, 132 miles away, forced The Statesman to move up its deadlines. Any story coming in after 7:30 p.m. now must wait until the next print cycle. In sports-crazy Boise, where the Boise State Broncos finished their 2018 regular season with a 10-3 record, Downtown Boise some readers complained that the out- after the Idaho Press, come of late-night Saturday football from nearby Nampa, games didn’t appear in print until Mon- expanded into Boise day. That may not have made a difference and purchased the to the fans who watched the games live Boise Weekly. JUSTIN BARNES/ or followed online, but it likely didn’t help UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO print readership. “People are agnostic to the way they Weekly, which has a prime downtown ness sponsorships and foundation grants. get their news and information,” says The Boise location. The Weekly is now inserted In Arizona, where the Gannett-owned Statesman’s publisher, Rebecca Poynter, into the Thursday edition of The Press. So Tucson Citizen was a casualty of the re- downplaying concerns about the earlier far, The Weekly has kept an independent cession, the online Tucson Sentinel is ap- deadlines. “Where it’s printed doesn’t editorial staff, concentrating on arts and proaching its ninth anniversary. Editor have any impact on the product.” culture, while The Press focuses on gov- and publisher Dylan Smith, who worked Meanwhile, losing The Statesman con- ernment, politics and public issues. at the Citizen until May 16, 2009, the day tract left The Press-Tribune with surplus Both publications see the competition it stopped printing, said it hasn’t been press capacity. Press-Tribune President as beneficial. “I love being in a vibrant easy. “Unlike the common perception of and Publisher Matt Davison said his divi- media community — it keeps all of us nonprofit news sites, we haven’t got huge sion president asked: “How are you going on our toes,” said Poynter, who arrived foundation support,” he said. What the to make up the revenue?” That led to the in Boise in April. Davison, at the helm Sentinel has is support from readers, lo- decision to open a Boise bureau and hire of The Press since 2010, agrees. “Provide cal donors and small businesses — “peo- Betsy Russell, one of the state’s leading po- a great local news product and you will ple who understand and appreciate good litical reporters, to head it. “Betsy’s hiring earn readers,” he said. “Boise has wel- local journalism.” turned heads and made people realize that comed us with open arms.” Smith is also a founder and board chair Adams was serious about covering Boise of LION, Local Independent Online News, in a way they hadn’t before,” said Don Day, DESPAIR NOT whose annual conference in Chicago this who edits BoiseDev, a website that covers Which of these strategies will work best, fall attracted several hundred current and business in the city. (Day licenses some or whether new models will appear and aspiring news entrepreneurs. Smith was BoiseDev content to the Idaho Press.) survive the encroaching desert, remains to heartened by the success stories he heard SERVICES PHOTO UIDAHO Russell, who had served as a one- be seen. But UNC’s Abernathy is encour- there. “One attendee was struck by how Kenton Bird spent 15 person Boise bureau for Spokane’s aged by the digital startups providing lo- this conference is positive, with people years as a newspaper Spokesman-Review since 1995, now cal news, with more than 500 identified in looking to the future, while other industry reporter and editor. He teaches journalism supervises three reporters covering city her team’s report. Still, she notes that 90 conferences are stuck in a doom-and- at the University of government, county government and percent of those are in metropolitan areas, gloom, how-do-we-survive mode.” Smith Idaho and is a former courts. “They’re tearing it up,” Russell where there are multiple news outlets doesn’t deny the challenges facing the director of UI’s School says of her colleagues. “How many jour- to choose from — not in the rural areas, media today. But the payoff, he believes, is of Journalism and nalists can say they are part of a growing where local reporters are few and far be- worth it. Journalists thrive on the sense of Mass Media. operation that’s adding print subscribers tween. It’s not clear how many of the new a job well done in the face of obstacles. As every day?” digital startups and nonprofit news outlet- Smith puts it: “We’ve managed to punch This story was funded Three months after hiring Russell, sare are sustainable, particularly if they above our weight, doing excellent reporting with reader donations The Press bought the 26-year-old Boise depend on subscriptions, donations, busi- — kicking ass and taking names.” to the High Country News Research Fund.

www.hcn.org High Country News 21 MARKETPLACE

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www.hcn.org High Country News 23 BOOKS

Welcome to the Alt-American West Without facts, we’re all tumbling through a kaleidoscope of realities

BY BRIAN CALVERT

“In the past people deliberately lied, or the rise of Trump and has buoyed him Canyon; and the militia-vs.-government they unconsciously coloured what they ever since. Neiwert traces this contingent conflicts over the Sugar Pine and White wrote, or they struggled after the truth, of the president’s supporters back to the Hope mines, in Oregon and Montana. well knowing that they must make 1990s Patriot movement — a collage of These are all versions of alternate many mistakes; but in each case they antigovernment groups — and the rise reality, self-reinforcing and powerful. believed that ‘facts’ existed and were of online misogynists, white nationalists, “The Internet made possible alterna- more or less discoverable. It is just this neo-Nazis and other manifestations of tive universes such as the one inhabited common basis of agreement, with its extremism. by the adherents of the Patriot move- implication that human beings are all From its beginning, the Patriot movement, or Alex Jones’s conspiracy milieu: one species of animal, that totalitari- ment promoted white supremacy, Chris- constructed of fabrications based on anism destroys.” —George Orwell tian identity and conspiracy theories, fragments, interacting with others’ fearing FEMA-sponsored concentration shared realities but operating almost Alt-America: The Rise “Who cares whether they laugh at us camps, black helicopter surveillance, a entirely within its own framework,” of the Radical Right or insult us, treating us as fools or New World Order and chemtrails. Patriot Neiwert writes. “It began as a relatively in the Age of Trump criminals? The point is that they talk ideology fractured like light through a small world limited largely to a fringe David Neiwert about us and constantly think about prism with the rise of right-wing radio, in the 1990s, but was resilient and grew us.” —Adolf Hitler conservative cable TV and the internet steadily as the new century advanced. 464 pages, — what David Foster Wallace called “a In the end, it gave birth not just to the softcover: $16.95 ast month, on the Friday after kaleidoscope of information options.” The alt-right but also to the much larger Verso; reprint edition, L Thanksgiving, the federal govern- more available these options became, the universe of Alt-America.” 2018. ment released the second volume of its less the public was able to debate the Fourth National Climate Assessment, facts. Ultimately, the improbable ideas of here does this lead? Nowhere good. warning that global warming increas- paranoiacs made their way into main- W As journalist and literary critic ingly threatens our nation’s environment, stream political conversations, online and Michiko Kakutani writes in The Death our health and our prosperity. When at the table. of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age asked the following Monday to comment The Patriots and other fringe groups of Trump, we now live in a place where on the assessment, the product of 13 have since thrived. They have myriad “truth increasingly seems to be in the government agencies and 300 scientists, manifestations — Oath Keepers, Three eye of the beholder, facts are fungible President Donald Trump said simply: “I Percenters, sovereign citizens, border and socially constructed, and we often don’t believe it.” militias, constitutional sheriffs — but feel as if we’ve been transported to an That same day, Alex Jones’ conspiracy- the movement still draws strength from upside-down world where assumptions fueled website, Infowars, cited a tweet by “a deep vein of antigovernment sentiment and alignments in place for decades have the president — “Brutal and Extended that had been simmering among conser- suddenly been turned inside out.” Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS vatives for many years,” Neiwert writes. This helps explain why, she writes, The Death of Truth: — Whatever happened to Global Warm- In August 2016, when candidate Trump “47 percent of Republicans erroneously Notes on Falsehood ing?” — to attack the report, impugning suggested that the “Second Amendment believe that Trump won the popular in the Age of Trump its researchers as potential “connivers for people” do something about his opponent, vote, 68 percent believe that millions of Michiko Kakutani the United Nations’ carbon tax scam … Hillary Clinton, he was appealing to this illegal immigrants voted in 2016, and shilling to fund Agenda 21 totalitarianism group, showing that once-inconceivable more than half of Republicans say they 208 pages, hysteria.” And just like that, the president political speech is now viable, even ad- would be okay with postponing the 2020 hardcover: $22 had all the rhetorical cover he needed to vantageous. presidential election until such problems Tim Duggan Books, justify his anti-environmental policies. As Alt-America emerged, so did its with illegal voting can be fixed,” and why 2018. Welcome to Alt-America, a topsy- Western corollary. Neiwert spends two “25 percent of Americans believe that turvy world of conspiracy theories, full chapters on Patriot-supported stand- the 2008 (financial) crash was secretly half-baked ideas and “alternative facts,” offs between the Bundys and the feds. He orchestrated by a small cabal of bankers, where trolls are real and news is fake, recalls the racist speeches of Cliven Bun- 19 percent believe that the U.S. govern- where facts don’t matter, and lies don’t dy outside Bunkerville, Nevada, where ment had a hand in the 9/11 terrorist either. This shadow realm was a favorite the elder Bundy suggested “the Negro” attacks, and 11 percent even believe a haunt of Donald Trump before he ran for may have been better off as a slave. Here, theory made up by the researchers — president, and gained greater prominence Neiwert correctly links the white su- that compact fluorescent lightbulbs were with his election. We all live in Alt-Amer- premacist roots of the Patriot movement part of a government plot to make people ica now, awash in its alternative realities, to its resurgence under President Barack more passive and easy to control.” propaganda and the kind of doublespeak Obama, the nation’s first black presi- These falsehoods gave rise to Trump, that George Orwell made famous in his dent. (Donald Trump’s first foray into yes, but Trump is not the water, he’s a 1949 novel, 1984, so it’s probably a good alt-politics was his relentless support of big ol’ catfish, and Kakutani gracefully time to ask how we got here, and where it the so-called “birther” conspiracy, which describes the murky pond we all share all leads. claimed President Barack Obama was with him. Some of this mental gunk not a U.S. citizen.) comes from the passive intake of alter- n Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Neiwert links this kind of alternative native reality through social media, but I Right in the Age of Trump, journalist thinking with Bundyism, the ideology some is the active work of populists. One and author David Neiwert charts the that brought about the Nevada standoff; of their more insidious efforts, as Kaku- emergence of alternative realities and the siege of the Malheur National Wild- tani describes it, is “the populist Right’s their spread across extremist groups. life Refuge, Oregon; the illegal “protest” appropriation of postmodernist argu- This, he argues, primed the electorate for ride of ATVs through Utah’s Recapture ments and its embrace of the philosophi-

24 High Country News December 24, 2018 cal repudiation of objectivity — schools safe, not less, weren’t “liberal numbers,” that “no change in doctrine or in political of thought affiliated for decades with the but rather compiled by the FBI, Gingrich alignment can ever be admitted. For to Left and with the very elite academic countered: “No, but what I said is equally change one’s mind, or even one’s policy, is circles that Trump and company scorn.” true. People feel it.” a confession of weakness. … Thus history These efforts “deny an objective reality Here, then, is the real danger. Right is continuously rewritten.” existing independently from human per- now, we live in a country not only fueled Compare that fiction to reality, ception” and have attacked scientific the- by raw emotions, but steered by them Kakutani suggests, when, after Trump’s ories as socially constructed, “informed as well. This can be dangerous on either Inauguration, “changes were being made by the identity of the person positing the extreme of the political spectrum, but to the climate change pages on the White theory and the values of the culture in today it’s coming from far-right populism. House website,” as environmental activ- which they are formed; therefore, science People feel that immigrants are taking ists “were frantically trying to download cannot possibly make claims to neutrality jobs, that America is unsafe and sullied. and archive government climate data or universal truths.” They believe that America was once great, — worried that it might be destroyed or When Trump says he doesn’t “believe” with its white ruling class and people in lost or hidden by a hostile administration. the U.S. government’s own climate as- their proper places. They feel afraid, and Some of their fears were realized later sessment, he is asserting that his belief so have thrown open the door to authori- in 2017, when the EPA announced that is what matters. It’s a common mode now, tarianism. This distortion permits the its website was ‘undergoing changes that feeling over fact, part of mainstream Re- president to co-opt terms like “fake news,” reflect the agency’s new direction,’ includ- publican thought, and easy to spot. Con- or to attack journalists as “enemies of the ing this Orwellian phrase: ‘updating sider the following exchange, recounted people,” invoking, incredibly, a term used language to reflect the approach of new by Kakutani, between CNN anchor Alisyn by Lenin, Stalin and the genocidal leaders leadership.’ ” Thus history is rewritten. Camerota and GOP operative Newt Gin- of the Khmer Rouge, at no political cost. That was more than a year ago, a A misinformation grich, at the 2016 Republican National It emboldens a president who lies for the very long time in Alt-America. Today, the newsstand set up Convention. “same reason that Vladimir Putin lies,” president doesn’t need to scrub informa- by the Columbia “The current view is that liberals have according to journalist Masha Gessen: “to tion from his government’s websites. Why Journalism Review a whole set of statistics which theoretical- assert power over truth itself.” bother? The Fourth National Climate in the lead-up to ly may be right, but it’s not where human Suddenly, comparisons to 1984 (Ama- Assessment was required by law and the U.S. midterm beings are,” Gingrich said, in defense of zon’s bestselling book in the month before therefore unavoidable, undertaken in elections aimed Trump’s law-and-order remarks. “People Trump’s inauguration) cut too close for good faith by public servants and scien- to educate news are frightened. People feel that their gov- comfort. Kakutani quotes 1984 at length, tists who still believe in facts and reality. consumers about ernment has abandoned them.” as it describes how “the party and Big None of that matters, though, because “I the dangers of actual When Camerota pointed out that sta- “fake news.” Brother exert control over reality” by con- don’t believe it” is the only fact the great ANGELA WEISS/AFP/ tistics showing that the country was more trolling speeches, statistics and records, so leader needs. GETTY IMAGES

www.hcn.org High Country News 25 PERSPECTIVE

The union wins in the end How the Los Angeles Times went from union-busting to media role model

Harrison Gray Otis, the first publisher of the Los 2017, Michael Ferro, the largest shareholder of Angeles Times (known as the Los Angeles Daily Tronc, the former Tribune Co., gave himself a payout Times in the 1880s), was widely known for his of $5 million — which would have covered a year’s combative conservative politics and anti-labor views. worth of salaries for more than 60 journalists — The Ohio-born Republican and Civil War veteran, even as Tronc announced a new wave of layoffs. The whose legendary motto was “You’re either with me much-publicized payout sent a clear signal that the or against me,” saw labor organizing as an obstacle constant downsizing had less to do with declines in to the success of his corporate holdings — and his revenue than with maximizing profits and keeping adoptive city. shareholders happy. In 1910, Otis’ anti-union editorials and proclama- “Last year was the annus horribilis of the media NEWS tions made him a highly visible target. In the early industry here,” Carolina Miranda, co-chair of the LA COMMENTARY morning hours of an October day, a dynamite explo- Times Guild and a staff writer focused on the arts, BY RUXANDRA sion destroyed about half of the paper’s headquarters told me. “The LA Times was under fire from Tronc, in downtown Los Angeles. Twenty-one people were and the LA Weekly got sold and vaporized from one GUIDI killed in the explosion and fire, including linotypers, day to the next.” All this left scars on the city: “How telegraph operators and engravers. do you have a major city function without a sig- The next morning’s headline exclaimed: “Unionist nificant news organization covering it, and not just bombs wreck the Times.” holding institutions accountable, but also doing the “I wanted the whole building to go to hell,” said profiles and social critiques that make for a lively J.B. McNamara, a member of the International Asso- urban center?” she said. ciation of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, which So, for over a year, the majority of the LA Times’ helped orchestrate more than 100 bombings target- 500 staff members came together to fight for the ing anti-union leaders across the country. “I am sorry paper’s health as well as their so many people were killed. I hoped to get Gen. Otis.” own needs: job protections, bet- Today, 137 years after the paper’s founding, its ter wages and wage equity for The majority of the LA employees have embraced the very philosophy that women and journalists of color — Otis fought so bitterly: Unionization. Cutbacks over who were underpaid by thou- Times’ 500 staff members the past two decades have emptied the newsroom, sands of dollars a year — along came together to fight for threatening the survival of one of the country’s most with a masthead that reflected widely read legacy papers. The push for unionization the diversity of LA itself. the paper’s health as well could save reporters’ jobs, yes, but backers also hope Last Jan. 4, 85 percent of the as their own needs: job it’ll help the paper better serve its city at a time of newsroom voted to form a union, widespread declines in local news coverage. and on June 18, Tronc sold the protections, better wages “For the past 10 years, it’s been the workers, not paper to Patrick Soon-Shiong, in- and wage equity for WHY BUILD WHAT the owners, who are preserving the legacy of the Los ventor of the cancer drug Abrax- Dyneema content more than doubles the fabric’s Angeles Times,” the paper’s national reporter, Matt ane and a philanthropist worth women and journalists of WON’T LAST? tear strength, and the organic Pearce, told the Columbia Journalism Review, a few about $6.8 billion. Soon-Shiong, color — who were underpaid cotton is Texas-grown months before the union was voted in. “We’re the who described the paper as “a dominant publication in the most populous, wealthi- shadow of its former self,” went by thousands of dollars est state in the country, one that is driving the direc- on to hire more than two dozen a year — along with a To make the most durable work denim possible, we turned to Hammer loop and large tion of the country in many ways.” new staffers, a move that even the strongest lightweight fi ber in the world. drop-in utility pockets The city of Los Angeles was defined by its “open the union-hating Otis may well masthead that reflected the hold small tools and The newest addition to the Patagonia Workwear line, our Steel larger phones shops” — nonunionized workplaces — during the have supported. diversity of LA itself. early part of the 20th century, with many credit- The paper’s sale and the move Forge Denim blends 92% organic cotton with 8% Dyneema®, a fi ber that’s light enough to fl oat on water but 15 times stronger ing them for the fast growth and success of local to unionize represent important Double-fabric knees industries, from manufacturing to film. The Los wins during a time of ever-tighter deadlines and than steel. It’s used in crane slings, tow ropes and anchor cables, accommodate knee pads, Angeles Times thrived, too: By 1995, the paper had a range of new challenges, with the White House and now it’s helping us fuse a traditional fabric with advanced tech- with bottom openings won its 20th Pulitzer Prize. But as the new millen- loudly denouncing journalists as the “enemy of the nology to build a more durable material that will withstand years that allow easy cleanout nium dawned, it became clear that the old bonanza people.” The LA Times journalists join the ranks Ruxandra Guidi is a of demanding work. contributing editor at years were over. Growth slowed, and the paper’s of other unionized media, including The New York staff shrank. In 2000, the LA Times announced its Times, Thomson Reuters, Time Inc. and The Wash- Dyed with natural indigo High Country News. grown in Tennessee, She writes from Los sale to media conglomerate Tribune Co. In response, ington Post. Other newsrooms from Wyoming and Timber framer Bodie Johansson chisels out fl oor joist housings in the Handcrafted Log & Timber yard in Ridgway, Colorado. BLAKE GORDON © 2018 Patagonia, Inc. replacing petroleum- Angeles, California. the staff organized for job security and better pay; Montana to New York are in the middle of their own derived synthetic dyes between 1990 and 2002, journalists tried to start a unionization fights. WEB EXTRA union six different times. And while the old newspaper glory days may be Read more from Longstanding resentments between reporters a thing of the past, reporters remain determined to Ruxandra Guidi and the paper’s managers and owners fed the push do their jobs and keep the public informed. “Now and all our for unionization. A rotating door of editors tried to we need to do a much better job communicating to Men’s commentators at reshape the newsroom even as owners announced readers what we do and what we need to serve them Steel Forge www.hcn.org hiring freezes and staff cuts. Then, in December well,” said Miranda. “We really need to speak up.” Denim Pants

26 High Country News December 24, 2018

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Dyed with natural indigo Timber framer Bodie Johansson chisels out ﬂ oor joist housings in the Handcrafted Log grown in Tennessee, & Timber yard in Ridgway, Colorado. BLAKE GORDON © 2018 Patagonia, Inc. replacing petroleum- derived synthetic dyes

Men’s Steel Forge Denim Pants

PAT_F18_HighCountry-Denim-FP.indd 1 8/2/18 3:32 PM HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY BETSY MARSTON

ALASKA “Make America Great Again.” Once pictures Tomasz Sulczynski’s behavior after the recent of the stunt appeared on social media, district 7.0 magnitude earthquake shattered the Superintendent Josh Middleton apologized highway and sent his vehicle into an instantly publicly and placed the revelers on paid created 10-foot sinkhole says a lot about the administrative leave, reports the Washington intestinal fortitude of Alaskans. The 46-year- Post. “I want to say we are better than this,” old and his girlfriend, Rebecca Taylor, were he said. Staffers were later reinstated, no making the four-hour drive from Homer to the longer in costume. airport in Anchorage when the earthquake struck. He held the wheel as everything COLORADO rocked and rolled around them and gaping An anti-baby boom is stalking Colorado, or so holes opened up. Sulczynski’s reaction? “It says the Denver Post. Eschewing parenthood was all so surreal and happened so fast,” he is a national trend, but Colorado’s downturn told The New York Times, “there was no time happened faster than elsewhere, and the state to get scared.” The couple abandoned their now ranks eighth for the largest fertility rate car, climbed out of the hole, picked their way decline. The paper queried 350 millennials to across the highway, which had been reduced learn their reasons for remaining childless. By to a tumble of slanting concrete slabs, and far the biggest concern was financial, followed calmly hitched a ride to the airport. They even by yearning for independence, worry about cli- made their flight. “Many in the state reacted mate change, and the desire to reach personal gleefully to the story: That is so Alaskan.” goals such as career advancement and more Sulczynski’s description on Facebook was education. Yet the apparent dip might just be matter-of-fact: “Driving to Anchorage didn’t delay, said demographer Jean Stevenson, who quite go as planned!” The earthquake was the teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder. biggest to shake the state in 50 years. As one woman put it, “Maybe I’ll hit 35 and think this is the biggest meaning in life and I ARIZONA don’t want to miss out on that.” Sometimes elected officials say the strang- est things. Now, thanks to the Phoenix New THE WEST Times, we’ve learned that state Republican In the “Don’t try this at home” category, a man Rep. David Stringer dislikes anybody whose housesitting for his parents in Fresno, Cali- skin is not only dark to begin with but stub- fornia, made news last fall when he used a ARIZONA ... para todos. GREG WOODALL bornly stays that way. In a talk to univer- blowtorch to kill a nest of black widow spiders. sity students recorded six months ago, the The blowtorch ignited a fire that extensively Prescott lawmaker complained that “African- high school before graduating to help support damaged the 4,000-square-foot home, reports Americans and other racial groups don’t … the family. Her obituary describes how she KSFN-TV. The blowtorch-wielder did not know blend in” after coming to the United States and worked in an ammunition plant during World that breeding spiders — a niche market, to be that, unlike immigrants of European descent, War II as a “Rosie the Riveter” and later became sure — can be surprisingly lucrative. In Wash- they “always look different.” The Arizona Re- a beloved hostess at several restaurants, who al- ington state, the Kitsap Daily News reports that public noted that Stringer has also been known ways “made people feel important.” “Nonna,” as when Lauren Weiss posted on Facebook that she to complain that “there weren’t enough white her grand-, great-grand- and great-great-grand- was selling young tarantulas, 15 people respond- kids to go around in the state’s public schools.” children called her, finally earned her GED at ed, a couple of them fellow tarantula hobbyists. Stringer, who recently won re-election to the age 67, though she didn’t retire until she was 79. Weiss said the fuzzy creatures — the arachnids, Arizona House, has called immigration “an exis- She made pies for her family and many friends, not the hobbyists — need little to be happy, just tential threat.” and loved “Jesus, dancing” and serving people a misty environment and a crunchy “roach or a “with love.” cricket once a week.” In two years, she added, no COLORADO tarantula had ever tried to bite her. A recent obituary in the Grand Junction Daily IDAHO Sentinel tells the story of a kind, patriotic and More than a dozen teachers and staff at Middle- WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see pie-loving immigrant and her family. Nancy C. ton Heights elementary school, 30 miles from hcn.org. Walter, whose parents came to the U.S. from Boise, Idaho, thought it would be hilarious if Italy, died recently in western Colorado, aged they donned stereotypical sombreros, mus- Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and 95. She was the first in her family to be born in taches, maracas and ponchos for Halloween, often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag America. The oldest of eight, she had to leave while others held up a cardboard wall that read: photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram.

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High Country News covers the important issues and stories H igh that are unique to the American West with a magazine and a Country website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write News High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or For people who care about the West. [email protected], or call 970-527-4898. 28 High Country News December 24, 2018