As reported in The Tucson Citizen, The Explorer has been sold to a Boulder Colorado Daily.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/70472.php
Please read what our friend, and ex-editor of The Explorer, now working at the Tucson Citizen, Mark Evans has to say about this deal.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/blogs/index.php?blog=26
5 comments:
This is extremely important information. People need to know that all commercial news media are driven by profit. They give us entertainment (Britney, Paris, Lute) disguised as news.
The Explorer endorsed the tax subsidy to Vestar (as did the Chamber of Commerce and the Oro Valley Republican Club). I believe that the Explorer was put in a difficult position this year because they couldn't report fairly on the vast disappointment over the announcements of the tenants for the Oro Valley Marketplace (i.e., Wal-Mart). If they did, they might lose their biggest financial supporters, the Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Oro Valley.
Also, the Explorer did start reporting negatively on Marana, and Marana started its own newspaper. (They also have their own Chamber.) So the message was clear: make nicey nice in Oro Valley, and don't report on anything there that might offend the Chamber or the Council.
So Melanie Larson goes through FOUR editors this year trying to squeeze some profit out of her rag, and then sells out to an out-of-state interest.
I know that Art has taken a lot of criticism for this blog, but I also know that he isn't getting a dime of profit out of it, and therefore, I can trust that his news and opinions haven't been filtered through the corporate sieve.
Thanks, Art.
Oops, I forgot to ask:
Melanie Larson describes herself as the "owner" of the Explorer, since 1993. Did it exist before that? If so, who owned it then?
I've heard that it was started by Conley Wolfswinkel, and if that's the case, then I can see why it's served his purposes, and it's okay for Ms. Larson to collect millions to sell it to some out-of-state corporation.
Thanks to OV Mom for the kind words. Our purpose is to educate & inform our OV neighbors on the issues of concern.
As noted in the following article from the Nov 30 Editor & Publisher, the Explorer (Previously called the Northwest Explorer) was launched in 1993.
Art
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'Colorado Daily' Publisher Buys 'Tucson Explorer'
By E&P Staff
Published: November 30, 2007 6:00 PM ET
CHICAGO Thirteenth Street Media Inc., publisher of the University of Colorado's Colorado Daily, announced late Friday that it has agreed to acquire Explorer Newspapers Inc. of Tucson, Ariz.
Explorer publishes the Tucson Explorer, an approximately 50,000-copy controlled circulation weekly launched in 1993 that serves Northwest Tucson/Pima County and southern Pinal County.
No terms of the transaction were disclosed.
The sale was announced by Explorer stockholders Melanie Larson and Terry Brashear, and by Colorado Daily Publisher Randy Miller from Thirteenth Street Media.
Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger-and-acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, N.M., represented Explorer Newspapers in the transaction.
A couple of points:
The Explorer did publish many complaints about Vestar and Walmart, there were links to the articles from this site!
The Town of OV did not "support" the newspaper, the advertisers did! Explorer News threatened to sue the Town of OV as they did file a suit against the Town of Marana.
It was Melanie that STARTED the chamber of commerce NPCCC, Marana refused to join it, preferring to have their own, this was a bone of contention. The chamber was beholden to her, not visa versa.
I doubt Melanie made "millions" on a local newspaper barely breaking even. She started the paper, it did not exist prior to 1993, she is a native to Tucson, hats off to her, I hope she made a tidy bundle, she earned it!
Who knows what Randy Miller will make of this newspaper, maybe relocating from out of state he will meet the needs of all residents that moved here from out of state.
Goldie,
Thanks for the info. Very interesting.
The only information I've seen the Explorer publish that was critical of Vestar or the OV Council was in letters to the editor. They did decide at one point that they weren't going to publish any more letters on the Marketplace. But it seems like in that same issue, they allowed an editorial praising it.
And it does seem to me that the only huge ads I've seen were from the Chamber or the Town of Oro Valley. Maybe Ms. Larson was giving them a good deal and not making much money off those ads. I have no idea.
Just my observations.
Thanks again for your input.
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