Shocked and Surprised

Well, after a week of this institute, I now realize I knew almost nothing that I needed to know about owning a newspaper when I purchased the Plateau Valley Times for the whopping cost of $1.  I can't even believe I agreed to the deal.  I really knew nothing.  Now, I know for sure, that I knew nothing.

But after a week of being here, I am pretty confident that I have learned a lot, by accident, about the paper that will really help me be a decent adviser for the Orange and Black.  A nice by-product is that I can make some great improvements to the Plateau Valley Times.

I break all kinds of rules while serving as Editor of the Plateau Valley Times.  I use a really old version of Quark...which Alan said was about a century old.  But, I had to learn how to use it myself. Actually, when I got the paper, I hired a former student of mine who had been an editor of the Orange and Black and she did all the lay-out and design the first summer while I figured out how to get it printed and delivered.  When I think back to those first editions, I cringe.

Now, it only takes me ten hours to do the paper once every two weeks.  I travel to Collbran and Mesa to get pictures and cover and event or two and then I try to make things fit.  I have three regular columnists: an outdoors column, a cowboy poet and an illustration by cartoonist to go with the poem, and another guy who writes articles about land conservation issues.  He is mostly pissing off the ranchers. My husband writes a history column.   I have two reliable  full page ads; one of them is my brother's mortgage company and the other is the hospital and one for a plumber.  He pays for the whole year in advance.  There are various business card ads.

A week before the deadline I send out emails and post on the community Facebook page that the deadline is coming up.  Then I sit down and try to figure out a front page story.  Sometimes something happens at just the right time, but a lot of times I just have to fish around and make a cake from the air.  It's either 16 or 20 pages.

After I get the whole thing  laid out, I take it to the printer and get the sucker printed.  Then I pay two of my grandkids to slap the mailing labels on them and they sort them for bulk mail.  I take them to post office and the next day my husband delivers them to the outlets in Collbran and Mesa.  We have 8 outlets total.  The paper costs 50 cents an issue.  The subscription for a year is $16 if you live in the Plateau Valley and $18 if you don't.

That's the glamorous life of a newspaper owner, editor, writer, reporter and photographer.  But I love that pass for the state wrestling finals and the tax right-offs aren't bad.

Sutton Casey
Grand Junction High School
Grand Junction, Colorado 81501