So much in Texas starts with the new football season, and in Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto County this year that fact takes on added significance with the opening of a new newspaper in a county without.
Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto County lost its newspaper in May of 2020, a casualty of the disrupted local media industry compounded by the challenges of doing business during pandemic times. But CherryRoad Media has bucked that trend, growing from no newspapers to 64 newspapers across 10 states in less than two years.
Dedicated to building community engagement through the power of local news, CherryRoad focuses on smaller communities and their need for locally focused journalism.
Mineral Wells is a growing and thriving Texas town. And it felt the pain of not having a local newspaper, a chronicler of its revitalization, a teller of its stories. So, members of the community, determined to fix that problem, reached out to CherryRoad this past spring to see if there was interest in opening a new operation.
“We were invited to visit Mineral Wells, and what we saw there was a community that is actively working to grow, to build its future,” said Jeremy Gulban, CherryRoad CEO. “We quickly realized this is a town, and a region, we want to be a part of. Opening a newspaper there was an easy decision.”
The Palo Pinto Press will debut with its inaugural edition on Friday, Aug. 26. Led by editor Ann Powers, a veteran community journalist, the paper will include a weekly print edition and online presence. For the first few weeks, the Press will be mailed to over 10,000 households in Mineral Wells, and an electronic edition will be sent to thousands of additional households across the county. A focused circulation push will lead to transition to a paid distribution model by later in the fall.
“The support we have seen throughout this community gives us confidence that we can quickly build a subscriber basis,” Gulban said. “We’ve used this model to good effect in other markets we’ve started a new paper in. People who lose their paper quickly realize the negative impact that has on their communities, and our experience tells us they will happily support a paid newspaper when it is filled with their local stories.”
That support extends to advertisers as well. Led by large community partners like Palo Pinto General Hospital and RM Nix, LLC, the CherryRoad team has found plenty of backing from local businesses. The Palo Pinto Press will be successful because of that backing.
Overall, CherryRoad Media continues to grow at a rapid pace. Acquisitions of existing newspaper operations are continuing, with fall 2022 expansion slated into another estimated six or more states. That said, the company’s experience in Mineral Wells and other news deserts show a path to growth not often focused on.
“This isn’t our first start up, and we don’t intend it to be our last,” Gulban said. “There are over 200 counties across this country that don’t have a local newspaper. As of this week, that number will be one less. We are honored to be the company that can serve that community. We look forward to serving many more as our expansion continues.”
