Media Landscape Shifts

Northern Colorado media is abuzz this week after three announcements about changes at local journalism institutions.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan is looking for a new president and publisher following the departure of Christine Chin, the newspaper reported on its Web site Tuesday.

Jim Beers, the news director of KUNC, the popular local National Public Radio affiliate based in Greeley, is headed to Colorado State University’s media relations department.

And the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, a weekly newspaper, announced it would stop printing on May 15, but would maintain a presence online.

While the changes could reflect the turmoil felt by the industry and the overall economy—especially in the case of the Chronicle—the two mainstream media chiefs said they were leaving by personal choice.

Coloradoan Editor Robert Moore said he could not comment beyond what was published online about Chin, who has been the paper’s publisher since September 2005.

Chin’s departure was effective Tuesday, he said.

In a statement on the Web site, Chin said she was leaving for family and personal reasons.

“I’ve achieved the professional goals I set for myself 20 years ago and decided it was time to work on my work-life balance,” said Chin, who is married and has a 9-year-old daughter.

A call to a phone number listed under her name was not returned.

The Coloradoan reported that Michelle Krans, Pacific Group regional vice president for Gannett Co. Inc., which owns the newspaper, said a search for a replacement was under way.

Dorothy Bland, who left abruptly as publisher in September 2005, said she was surprised to hear the news and wished Chin well. Bland was named director of the Division of Journalism at Florida A&M University in January 2007.

Bland had led the Coloradoan for 11 years, most notably overseeing the launch of its Web site and the development of a new building next to the paper’s headquarters on Riverside Drive. Chin replaced her in September 2005 under what had been described as a difficult departure.

“I feel very proud of the work that I did in Fort Collins. How many publishers can say that they built a new building and doubled profits?” Bland said. “I wish Christine and her family all the best, and I wish Gannett all the best. But I’m living my life.”

When Bland was replaced, Chin was immediately named as her replacement.

Colorado State University professor James Landers said the lack of an immediate replacement this time suggests Chin’s departure was not business-related.

“Bland was escorted out of the building with (Editor Michael) Limon, so that tells you right here that there’s a different thing going on,” he said.

If recent history is any indication, changes in media leadership seem to come in waves. Bland’s departure occurred mere months before the retirement of the Greeley Tribune’s longtime publisher and just before the Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, the Chronicle’s predecesor, ceased publication.

In the last three years, there have been changes at Swift Communications—which owns Fort Collins Now, formerly the Fort Collins Weekly—and some media companies have laid off workers, but in large measure, the media landscape has been mostly calm until now.

Beers, 51, who lives in Fort Collins, has been with Greeley-based KUNC since 1985, where he has hosted NPR’s “Morning Edition” and afternoon “All Things Considered” programs. He left his hosting duties about a year ago to focus on planning and development.

Beers’ last day at the station—and his last on-air shift—will be May 16.

“That’ll be kind of a hard one, but it’ll be nice to be able to say good-bye, and put that chapter behind,” he said. “I’ve been doing radio for many, many years. ... I’ve kind of done the radio thing since, well, freshman year in college.”

Beers said Tuesday that he looked forward to returning to a university, where he worked for 16 years when KUNC was based at the University of Northern Colorado.

“Working within a university environment is nothing new to me, and I’m kind of looking forward to that. I’ve always seen it as a stimulating environment,” he said. “They’re doing some pretty good things at CSU, and I think it’s a very good time to be joining the university.”

At CSU, he will head up public relations for the colleges of Natural Sciences and Agricultural Sciences, as well as the university’s cooperative extension program.

Beers said the station would continue to thrive and grow after his departure.

“It’s going to be a little bittersweet, but at the same time I can always listen and feel connected,” he said.

Landers said radio is changing, too, as “old media” institutions like radio and newspapers try to evolve.

“It’s a cliché phrase, but old media is really lost right now,” he said. “Its basic economic model is shattered right now, and that includes radio.”

Landers said he does not believe the departures of Chin and Beers are related to turmoil in the media industry, however.

But he said the Chronicle is a different story.

“On the Chronicle what’s significant is it’s an alternative newspaper with free distribution in a college town, and it can’t make it. So what does that say about print in general? To me that says a lot, that a print paper has to close up shop and go online,” he said. “Online is OK, it’s a new medium. But how do people find you, do they consider you the same kind of news source, do people read as intensely online as they do in print, do they retain the information? It’s a whole different thing.”

He said the economic downturn is affecting the media industry along with everything else, so it may just be bad timing for the Chronicle.

A call to the Chronicle’s publisher, Sadie Moore, was not returned; last week, Editor Vanessa Martinez directed reporters to Moore’s column about the decision to cease publication. In that column, Moore said she would continue promoting local independent journalism.

“We have no intention of abandoning the cause. We are currently considering a variety of possibilities for continuing this publication in another format, or configuration of formats,” she wrote.

Patrick Plaisance, also a journalism professor at CSU, said the Chronicle’s move is an example of the experimentation taking place in print journalism.

“I think it’s part of a broader trend, that we’re seeing the news media in general is still searching for a new model,” he said. “The model that we have is broken, and no one knows what to replace it with.”

But he said newspapers will continue to be profitable, countering Landers’ argument that print is doomed.

“I don’t believe it’s dying at all. You look at the profit margins and they are still fairly healthy. There are some dark clouds, of course, but you know, print advertising, which is the engine that drives print publications, that is still attractive, it’s still viable, it’s stil effective in the minds of many advertisers,” he said. “So I question the obituaries of print right now.”

He spent 15 years as a newspaper reporter and said many of the opportunities he had have vanished as the industry changes. But on the other hand, new reporters have opportunities that didn’t exist even a few years ago, he said.

“The land is shifting under all of our feet, and we’re still kind of figuring out what’s going to be the successful model for journalism in the United States,” Plaisance said. “Some days I’m like, ‘Ugh, I got out at a good time,’ and other days, I’m like, ‘This is pretty cool, this is some exciting changes going on.’ The jury is still out.”

Update

Dorothy Bland, former president and publisher of the Fort Collins Coloradoan, disputed the account given by a professor last week of her departure from that newspaper.

Colorado State University professor James Landers is quoted in the story saying that when Bland resigned from the Coloradoan in 2005 and was immediately replaced, she was escorted from the building. Bland, however, said no one walked her to the door and that she left on her “own two feet.”