I attended the State of the Community event on Wednesday night and decided this was a good time to talk about the state of the Craig Press.

To say the least, the Craig Press has seen a lot of recent changes. On January 1, Ogden Newspapers took over as the new owners of the paper. I took over as the publisher of the Craig Press and the Steamboat Pilot & Today on the same day. Cuyler Meade joined our team as editor at the Craig Press back in mid 2021, and, in addition to that role, he became the assistant editor in Steamboat in January. Cuyler is a great editor and we are very fortunate to have him in our community. We now have two very talented reporters, Eliza Noe and Amber Delay. In our advertising department, we have a knowledgeable multi-media marketing consultant in Nannette Rosenbaum, who joined our team in October. Operations assistant Courtney Brackett and operations manager Holly Hunter make sure the office operates smoothly on a daily basis. Both have a long history with the paper and bring knowledge and experience.

As for me, I have been in and out of the newspaper business (mostly in) since I started my career at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in the early 90’s. I have been in the Yampa Valley since 2005 and have worked for Swift Communications for the last five years. I worked for the Craig Press several years ago as the Advertising Director when Bryce Jacobson was publisher; I loved the job and this community. So, needless to say, when I was given the opportunity to lead the Craig Press and the Steamboat Pilot & Today, I jumped at the chance.

Like many of you, I have asked myself what the recent changes mean for the Craig Press. When I look around the office at the faces of this team, I am humbled. We are blessed with outstanding talent; full of commitment, pride and a passion not only for local journalism, but also for this community where we live, work and play. We feel the pain when there is a tragedy in our community, and, likewise, we feel the joy when we see our community triumph and succeed. This team gives the newspaper and this community 100% of themselves and is all-in all the time.

A change in ownership does not mean a change in the dedication of our team. Anyone who gets into this industry has to have a passion for it; it’s not an easy profession. It could be said that we have “ink” in our blood as we eat, breathe and sleep the business into which we have all invested so much of ourselves. Please know that we have deep roots in the Yampa Valley, and we love this community, this newspaper and what we do. The sale of the Craig Press to Ogden Newspapers has not and will not change how this team does its job day in and day out: We will always be all-in all the time and highly dedicated to you and this community.

Ogden has told us that their company operates decentralized and that they want us to stay local and to continue to focus on what is important to our communities. This is good news, because that’s exactly what we plan to do. The team at the Craig Press will continue to live here, to love this town like you do, to write stories on the topics that impact our community and to help our local businesses grow and succeed.

Ogden Newspapers is a family-owned company. They purchased us because they believe in local journalism and in the communities that we serve. I believe that it takes a village to have a strong, local newspaper of which we are all proud. I want and need your feedback. My door is always open, my phone is always on and my email inbox is awaiting your letters.

If there’s one thing I can do, I would encourage you to take time to enjoy our beautiful surroundings, be thankful for your hard-working coworkers and appreciate the people in our community that make your life a little better each day. I know I will.

And finally, I would like to say “thank you” to all of you that support us in our daily commitment to bring truth and honesty to our community. I have had a lot of highlights in my professional life, but becoming Publisher of the Craig Press and working in this community is one of the greatest honors of my career.