{"id":29726,"date":"2024-01-15T18:25:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T01:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-southwest-colorado-another-publication-prints-its-final-edition\/"},"modified":"2024-01-16T01:25:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T01:25:29","slug":"in-southwest-colorado-another-publication-prints-its-final-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-southwest-colorado-another-publication-prints-its-final-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"In Southwest Colorado, another publication prints its final edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Journalism
Journalism awards line the wall behind Gail Binkly, co-founder and editor of the Four Corners Free Press, in her office in Cortez, where she's preparing the final edition of the 20-year-old, award-winning monthly publication. (Mark Stevens\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Four Corners Free Press, an alternative monthly based in Cortez that served up award-winning news coverage, a wide range of editorial voices and even a popular police blotter, will publish its final edition next weekend, ending a 20-year run and becoming another casualty in the decline of rural print publications.<\/p>\n

Co-founder and editor Gail Binkly pointed to rising printing costs \u2014 a recurring theme among many struggling rural papers \u2014 and the loss of advertisers during the pandemic as factors in the decision to close the paper she owned along with her husband, David Long, and Wendy Mimiaga.<\/p>\n

She added that they\u2019ve long been operating on a shoestring, but that the economics finally became untenable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really hasn\u2019t been viable for a long time,\u201d Binkly said. \u201cWe just made enough money to scrape by every month. We like doing the paper and we\u2019ve been doing it basically without paying ourselves for a while. But it\u2019s just getting more and more difficult to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Journalism
Journalism awards line the wall behind Gail Binkly, co-founder and editor of the Four Corners Free Press, in her office in Cortez, where she's preparing the final edition of the 20-year-old, award-winning monthly publication. (Mark Stevens\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After starting her journalism career as a sports writer in Colorado Springs, Binkly taught mass communications at what\u2019s now known as Colorado State University Pueblo before moving to Cortez. She worked for 11 years at the Cortez Sentinel\/Montezuma Valley Journal, including two years at the renamed Cortez Journal.<\/p>\n

She and Mimiaga, who shot photos for the Journal, had disagreements with management when the paper changed publishers and decided to pursue their own venture, with Binkly running the news side and Mimiaga handling the advertising.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really just thought there should be a regional kind of newspaper,\u201d Binkly said. \u201cWe wanted to offer something that was more in-depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled traveling to Salt Lake City to cover the trial of Phil Lyman, a former San Juan County (Utah) commissioner who led a 2014 protest against the Bureau of Land Management, and to New Mexico to cover protests at the controversial proposed Desert Rock power plant on Navajo tribal lands. The Free Press also featured freelance reporting from the Grand Canyon on bison issues and covered controversy surrounding development at Wolf Creek.<\/p>\n

But she credits her husband for writing perhaps the publication\u2019s signature attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most popular thing in our newspaper honestly, is the police blotter,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause he tries to write it in a way that makes it interesting, sometimes humorous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Binkly, 67, hopes the Four Corners Free Press is remembered as \u201cjust something that provided an alternative voice and filled a void and covered some issues that weren\u2019t being covered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Stevens, a longtime Colorado journalist and author who moved to the area nearly five years ago, described the Free Press as \u201cquirky in the best way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had lots of really good journalism,\u201d said Stevens, who has contributed book reviews. \u201cUsually, every issue features a couple or three stories that are a really good analysis of something going on, covering an issue. And then behind that, just lots of voices \u2014 so many different columnists and points of view. And she really wanted the whole spectrum of what\u2019s down here.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it just becomes a chorus of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Free Press had only about 275 paid subscribers, the bulk of its distribution came from news racks and coin-operated boxes \u2014 nearly 40 spread throughout the region. Single copies of the paper sell for 50 cents ($12 a year by subscription).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been the price forever and part of the reason \u2014 this will probably make you laugh \u2014 is because we were given some coin-operated newspaper racks from other papers that had been out of business,\u201d Binkly explained. \u201cThey were set for 50 cents, and we don\u2019t have anybody that knows how to reset them. We\u2019ve had people suggest that we should just get a bunch of new racks and charge more, but it\u2019s difficult to even find racks anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

In retrospect, Binkly figures that naming the publication the Free Press might not have been the best choice. One of her \u201cgreat irritations,\u201d she said, has been readers who assume from the name that the paper is free and simply grab a copy from the wire racks at a business without bothering to pay the cashier.<\/p>\n

Readers in the region are still served by the Cortez Journal.<\/p>\n

The loss of local newspapers, especially in rural areas, has become a nationwide problem as well as an object of concern within the state. Some estimates count 2,500 papers in the U.S., and more than 50 in Colorado, as being lost since 2005. Many smaller operations have not embraced technology behind online publication and still embrace a stagnant business model built on low-priced newspapers and print advertising.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun last fall outlined many of the challenges facing small and rural papers in its project \u201cFinal Edition: Saving Local News\u201d and also noted the recent closing of the Colorado Springs Independent.<\/p>\n

The decline of legacy newspapers also affects democracy, as it creates information gaps that make it more difficult for voters to make informed choices, while powerful institutions lack oversight by watchdog reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past few months, ironically, we\u2019ve had people calling us up,\u201d Binkly said. \u201cThey\u2019re saying we need to write about this and we need to write about that, or somebody needs to investigate this local government entity and so on. And we don\u2019t have the resources to do that. There are gaps that aren\u2019t being filled and it\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Four Corners Free Press does have a website, Binkly notes that it\u2019s not much of an online presence and basically amounts to \u201ca really good archive.\u201d She and her co-owners have thought about conversion to online-only, but the logistics \u2014 and the economics of online advertising, which is less lucrative than print \u2014 seem daunting.<\/p>\n

And so Binkly will send the final edition, which explains the publication\u2019s farewell, off to the printer in Santa Fe and then fill the racks for the last time. Some locals are already saddened by the loss of a local institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hate to lose local journalism at any level,\u201d said local resident Chuck Greaves, author and former contributor to the publication\u2019s book reviews. \u201cGail really had her finger on the pulse of the community. And it\u2019s a voice we\u2019ll certainly miss down here. Even though the readership may not have been large enough to keep it afloat, I think it was a passionate and dedicated readership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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