{"id":23892,"date":"2025-01-23T19:20:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T02:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-standard-oldest-paper-in-western-colorado-under-new-ownership\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:44:07","slug":"silverton-standard-oldest-paper-in-western-colorado-under-new-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-standard-oldest-paper-in-western-colorado-under-new-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton Standard, oldest paper in Western Colorado, under new ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Silverton
Silverton will get more affordable housing in 2023. \u201cThese units will be deed and income restricted and provide workforce housing for our community,\u201d said Silverton Town Manager Gloria Kaasch-Buerger. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Silverton Standard and The Miner<\/em><\/a> \u2013 a bastion of local news in San Juan County \u2013 has been sold.<\/p>\n

DeAnne Gallegos, a third-generation Silvertonian, purchased the weekly periodical for an undisclosed sum from Jennifer Brill in a deal finalized Saturday.<\/p>\n

The transfer demarcates another chapter in the paper\u2019s storied history, which began in 1875 when the La Plata Miner<\/em> was founded. The Silverton Standard<\/em> began publishing in 1889, according to the San Juan County Historical Society<\/a> (which owned the paper from 2009 until 2020), and the two papers merged into the The Silverton Standard and The Miner <\/em>in 1922.<\/p>\n

In 2011 the paper was named a historic site in journalism by the Society of Professional Journalists. <\/a>It is the oldest continuously published paper on the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost kind of like acquiring a living, breathing museum,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cBut it is also our public record, and so we take that very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DeAnne
DeAnne Gallegos purchased The Silverton Standard and The Miner on Saturday, taking over the 150-year-old paper. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Standard<\/em> has five employees, including its new owner and publisher, and a newly acquired office on Greene Street.<\/p>\n

Like many in the town of 700, Gallegos wears multiple hats. In addition to writing for the Standard<\/em>, she is the executive director of the Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce and the spokesperson for San Juan County.<\/p>\n

In a news landscape often described in bleak terms<\/a>, especially with respect to small, local publications, Gallegos is optimistic about the Standard\u2019s<\/em> future and has no illusions as to the importance of local news.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a community loses their local newspaper, there are so many ricocheting effects,\u201d she said, citing government accountability and transparency chief among them.<\/p>\n

\"In
In 2011, The Silverton Standard and The Miner was named a historic site in journalism by the Society of Professional Journalists. (Courtesy DeAnne Gallegos)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Standard<\/em> is financially sustainable, but could not be described as profitable \u2013 something Gallegos hopes to change. Coin-operated newspaper racks in Silverton are stocked with 250 copies each Thursday, although online traffic makes up the bulk of the paper\u2019s circulation. The Standard <\/em>is printed in Montrose.<\/p>\n

The founders of Silverton Mountain, Aaron and Jen Brill, bought the paper<\/a> from the historical society in 2020 in an attempt to revive the languishing publication. The Brills sold the ski area <\/a>in 2023. Jen, who now lives in Alaska, approached Gallegos in the summer of 2024 about taking over the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe understood the importance of the newspaper in our community,\u201d Brill said. \u201cShe\u2019s really community-minded, which I thought was very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Gallegos, to take over as publisher is to shoulder a great responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about selling the newspaper and the asset that she continued to build,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cIt was more about passing the torch \u2013 \u2018How can this remain in the community? Who would I entrust this (to) with integrity and reliability to the community?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallegos said she intends to give complete editorial independence to the paper\u2019s editor, Katey Fetch, avoiding any conflict of interest caused by her other jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis newspaper entity has outlived every single owner and will continue to outlive me,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cAnd so honestly, it\u2019s just my turn to ensure that it has integrity, focuses on the community, (and) is the hub of all community information.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gallegos purchased weekly from Jennifer Brill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2579,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newspapers","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78308,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23892\/revisions\/78308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23892"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}