Print media in the Gorge enters a new era.
Presenting Columbia Gorge News, a shared community publication of The Dalles Chronicle, White Salmon Enterprise and Hood River News.
With this edition, readers of all three papers will find a combined, weekly publication presenting news and information from throughout the Columbia River Gorge.
First of all, we recognize this is a time of change. The three papers were, until March 31, proud members of the Eagle Newspaper family. Eagle ceased publication of all three papers, and they quickly moved to the new ownership of local publisher Chelsea Marr. What that involves is still being worked out; in many ways, we are a new business, open for business with signs out like “pardon our dust.”
Behind all this is what we’ve conveyed in recent messages to readers, calling attention to the difficult realities that the newspapers, like most small businesses, have faced in potent and daunting ways: Shrinking revenues in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades.
Columbia Gorge News, this mutual effort among members of what was previously three newspaper staffs, is this new company’s earnest effort to sustain community journalism in the Gorge. The communities of The Dalles, Hood River, White Salmon-Bingen, Maupin, Parkdale, Moro, Cascade Locks, Dufur, Lyle, Stevenson, and all others in Hood River, Wasco, Klickitat, Sherman and Skamania counties deserve it. We at Columbia Gorge News want to provide it, and with many evident changes in how we go about it, we are moving forward. It’s scary and exciting, and it is necessary for the health of the region. For the task ahead we ask for two things: Patience and participation.
Most readers will see a less-frequent newspaper than they are accustomed to, and how it looks is new. The title at the top of recent page ones has, we acknowledge, altered a bit in recent weeks, yet the composite branding you see before you reflects the regional mission of this newspaper. More commonly, our community members live and work in different areas of the Gorge, and we hope this is a way to provide news from the Gorge: News that is pertinent to those in one community and possibly of interest to another.
To be clear, we are putting together our news pages with far fewer people than the former publications had available. We won’t be able to do as much, but we seek to provide important reports and details of the people, businesses, organizations and agencies throughout the Gorge. We also see our plan for regional news growing as we are able to work back up to full speed.
The patience part? You will see changes, as well as both content you’re used to and not used to, and NOT see content you’ve known in the past, at least not as frequently or in the same way. Decisions are being made as we go by a group of people who have already worked together as an associated trio of newspapers, sharing content on a regular basis. But the difference now is that folks from all three publications have officially joined forces for this one publication, and one that is a work in progress.
The participation part? Keep coming with those press releases, news tips, columns, essays and letters and other commentaries. Best ways to reach us? You’ll find that on page A1. Email is best these days as we continue to work from home and have limited office hours.
Thanks for staying with us as we embark on new, and evolving, ways to travel and tend the trails we know and love.
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