I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Many reporters were left scrambling after the Rocky Mountain News closed. Some joined the Rocky Mountain Independent which recently folded, but Albuquerque-born M. E. Sprengelmeyer had a different idea — he bought his own paper, the Guadalupe County Communicator.
Sprengelmeyer told the New York Times that he had been searching for a small-town newspaper for a couple of years, including in Iowa, where he covered Presidential caucuses.
Sprengelmeyer was the Washington D.C. correspondent for the Rocky Mountain News before deciding to try his hand at running and reporting for a small town newspaper. He has brought a professional approach to news reporting in a town of less than 3,000 people and it has served to increase sales, he says.
Sprengelmeyer does it all, from reporting to driving to Clovis to pick up his press run — a five and a half hour drive according to Google Maps.
What is the draw for readers in a small town to read the paper?
“If a house burns down, everybody here knows it, saw it, knew the people, probably hugged them, but they still want to read about it in a paper that comes out four days later,” Sprengelmeyer told the New York Times.
