From covering the Iraq war and a presidential campaign for the defunct Rocky Mountain News, M.E. Sprengelmeyer is now the proprietor of the Guadaloupe County Communicator in Santa Rosa, N.M. -- pop. 2,600.
Of the thousands of paths taken by journalists who have been cast off by shrinking metropolitan newspapers, Mr. Sprengelmeyer’s is one of the more unusual, and one of the more hopeful. While bringing some big-city professionalism to a distinctly small-time operation, he says he is making enough money to support himself, and he has been able to assign some freelance work to a few underemployed former colleagues.
At least half a dozen veterans of The Rocky and other papers have contributed to The Communicator in the last two months — most paid, a few pro bono — and more are in the pipeline. Two have become regulars: Mark Holm, a photographer and former photo editor at The Rocky and several other papers, and Drew Litton, a former Rocky cartoonist.
“It’s the Tom Sawyer business plan: I’m trying to convince all my friends how much fun it would be to help me,” said Mr. Sprengelmeyer. ...
His new career turn was not a desperation move caused by the closing of The Rocky. He has thought about it for a while. For a couple of years, he scouted small-town papers that were for sale, including some in Iowa that he visited while covering the presidential caucuses there. After The Rocky’s demise, Mr. Sprengelmeyer, who grew up mostly in Albuquerque, turned his sights on New Mexico.
He would not disclose what he paid for The Communicator, but in a city where the median home price is about $100,000, he is a renter because “I could either buy a newspaper here or buy a house here, but not both.” ...
The move keeps him in the news business, and makes Sprengelmeyer his own boss, but note the following:
The experience has made him an evangelist for small-town papers, which he says offer a hidden opportunity for unemployed journalists, but he acknowledges it isn’t for everybody. He works to the brink of exhaustion, fueling late-night production sessions with nicotine and caffeinated energy drinks. After a few hours’ sleep, he makes a three-hour, round-trip drive to pick up his press run in Clovis, where the paper is printed.
“I couldn’t do this if I had a family,” he said. “But it feels like it matters, and I’m having fun.”