Catskill Mountain News
Type | Weekly Newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | Joan Lawrence-Bauer |
Editor | Joan Lawrence-Bauer. |
Founded | 1863 |
Headquarters | Arkville, New York, United States |
Circulation | 3,600 copies |
OCLC number | 8433945 |
Website |
www |
The Catskill Mountain News is an American weekly newspaper serving the town and surrounding environs of Middletown, NY.[1] With a current circulation of 3,600,[1] it is both the oldest and the largest paper in the area. Still independently owned, it is currently run and written by Joan Lawrence-Bauer, with a headquarters in Arkville, NY.[2]
History
The News traces its roots to the foundation of the Utilitarian in 1863.[1] The first newspaper in the town of Margaretville, the paper was published by Orson M. Allaben.[3][4] After passing through a number of hands it was purchased by the Catskill Mountain News.
In 1894, the Margaretville Messenger was founded by a stock company, which hired as editor John Grant.[3] It continued to 1902, when it was sold to W. E. Eells, who renamed it the Catskill Mountain News.[3] When Eells died suddenly, just two years later, Clarke Sanford, a local schoolteacher, approached his widow about the paper.[5][6] Eells's widow offered to let Sanford run it on credit. If he were to make a profit, he would pay her the purchase price; if not, she would reclaim the paper. Sanford agreed to the terms and after a tough initial few years made good on the loan.[5]
Sanford would run the paper for over 60 years,[5] presiding over the expansion of the newspaper. In 1918, he purchased the Utilitarian, altering the News's numbering to date back to that paper's 1863 founding.[3][7] He also invested in updated Linotype printing, and changed locations as the paper grew.[3]
The paper would be passed on to Clarke's son Roswell, on his death in 1964. In turn it was passed to Roswell's son Richard D. Sanford.[8] By 1990, the paper was struggling, which the younger Sanford believed was a result of low overall economic activity in New York's more rural areas.[8] Sanford noted that with shopping increasingly being concentrated in larger stores in more central cities, advertising in rural towns was less sustaining: "Stamford is about 25 miles out of Oneonta, and the growth of the Oneonta market has had a corresponding negative impact on the retail industry in Stamford."[8] He went on to note the future of the publication was a relentlessly local focus, and that of the weeklies he published Catskill Mountain News was the most robust.[8]
In 2017, the paper was sold to Joan Lawrence-Bauer,[7][9] a former writer for the News.[9]
References
- 1 2 3 "Catskill Mountain News". Mondo Times. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
- ↑ "Contact Us". Catskill Mountain News.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Faibisoff, Sylvia; Hillman, Linda (April 1973). "A Bibliography of Newspapers in Fourteen New York State Counties". New York History.
- ↑ "Village of Margaretville". The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown.
- 1 2 3 "60 Years a Newspaperman". The Oneonta Star. 2 May 1964. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
- ↑ Riedinger, Joyce. "History and Stories of Margaretville and Surrounding Area". www.dcnyhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
- 1 2 "History as it Happened: a tribute to Catskill Mountain News". The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown.
- 1 2 3 4 "Weeklies stay in black with community focus". Press and Sun-Bulletin. 3 September 1990. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
- 1 2 "Joan Lawrence-Bauer to become News owner". Catskill Mountain News. 14 September 2016.