Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
The great philosopher Will Rogers told us a century ago, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
We believe our newspaper is on the right track as we move through the ever-changing landscape of the 21st century. And we’ll be making some significant changes this year in effort to remain a valuable asset to our communities.
Some highlights:
• Beginning next month, we’ll be publishing once per week in print. That print edition will come out each Wednesday and contain all of the regular features we have now in Sunday and Wednesday.
There are a myriad of reasons for this change: cost, yes, but also consolidation allows us to spend less time producing printed newspapers and more time gathering and reporting news and promoting local businesses through advertising.
Instead of an 8-page paper and a 16-page paper each week, readers can expect 24-32 pages of printed news each week. And instead of paying $3 per week at the convenience store for an average of 24 pages of printed news each week, the price will drop to $2 per week for more news.
Print subscribers will see their price drop from $121 annually to $88.
• Readers and advertisers will also have a broader view of the region.
We will continue to report news and sports in Curry, Roosevelt and Parmer counties as we do now; next month we’ll include Quay County in our circulation area.
• While we consolidate our printed news coverage into one bigger, better product, our online presence – easternnewmexiconews.com -- will continue to grow as it has been.
The annual online subscription (still free to print subscribers) will stay at $88 per year for those who choose to read online only. That’s less than a quarter a day for content that won’t fit in print and is often updated multiple times daily.
The accident at Southwest Cheese that sent 15 employees to the hospital on Dec. 30, for example, received complete coverage in our Jan. 1 and Jan. 5 printed newspapers. Our online edition, meanwhile, provided all of that information as it developed starting Dec. 30, with updates Dec. 31, Jan. 1 and Jan. 2.
• Another change for 2025 we’ve already implemented is improved print quality. The Santa Fe Ink press is our region’s best and you can see the evidence for yourself as early as this month.
• We have other changes in mind as well. For example, we’re looking for more local writers, especially those who can paint word pictures about faith, pets and politics. Contact the editor: [email protected]
News consumers these days have more options than ever before. Many, unfortunately, are choosing to get information from the “citizen journalists” on social media.
While some of those voices add value to the conversation, they are not always reliably accurate. Worse yet, they are sometimes intentionally misleading and divisive, and often an invasion of individuals’ rights to privacy, in effort to obtain “views” or “hits.”
Those social media sites are mostly free, with little or no overhead costs, and, as a result, they’ve become our most fierce competitors.
We’re not free. But we’re responsible, reasonably priced and more accurate than any other means of obtaining information about the world around eastern New Mexico. We employ professional, trained journalists whose sources are publicly attributed.
Bad news: Our nation has seen 3,300 printed newspapers go out of business since 2005. More than 125 newspapers went out of business in 2024. The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University estimates 55 million Americans now have limited to no access to local news.
The good news: The Eastern New Mexico News is alive and well and making plans to stay that way. That means change; some we like, some we don’t. But we believe we’re on the right track to being healthy and keeping our communities informed, helping small businesses reach their customers, and holding public officials accountable to taxpayers.
David Stevens is editor and publisher of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him:
