A couple of weeks ago, a media company that owned dozens of newspapers across the region suddenly collapsed. It forced eight Wyoming papers to shut down. The outcry statewide was immediate. But, a week later, the owners of the Buffalo Bulletin stepped forward with one other investor and offered to buy all eight and keep them publishing.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards sat down with Robb Hicks and Jen Sieve-Hicks to hear how they decided to buy these Wyoming papers.
Editor’s Note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Melodie Edwards: I wonder if you can tell me how you found out that News Media Corporation was going to be shutting down all these papers and what your initial reaction was?
Robb Hicks: We found out that these publications were closing the same way that the staff found out, [and] the same way that the rest of the state found out: with an announcement on Facebook.
Jen Sieve-Hicks: I felt so bad for the communities. I know what it's like to live in a small community, and my first thought was, ‘Oh my gosh, school's starting in two weeks and all those school things that nobody is going to document, that first home football game. There's not going to be anyone there to take a picture or write a story.’ That might seem small, but for the participants and the parents and the grandparents, it's not small.
My second thought, in the same moment, was, ‘Who's going to cover their government meetings? Who is going to be the government watchdog and how are we going to get those public notices published?’ Because we do know they're critical in our communities. Those were my two immediate reactions to the news and overwhelming sadness for the communities.
ME: What kind of conversations started happening behind the scenes with you and any of the news organizations that you were in contact with?
JSH: The conversations with our colleagues throughout the state were, ‘Gee, I hope someone picks up the baton.’ I think the suddenness with which this happened was really the jaw-dropper on all of this. I didn't know that the News Media Corporation was in such dire financial straits that it was going to end up this way. You can see our faces on the screen. We're not young. We're not new to this industry. I don't think either of us had this in our plan for 2025.
RH: What really happened is we started getting phone calls around the state from retired publishers [and] retired editors, lamenting this and saying, ‘What's gonna happen here?’ There just didn't seem to be any good answers. Sometimes when there's not an answer, you have to be the one to step up and answer that call. I talked to Jen about this and I said, ‘I think I'm gonna call Rob Mortimer [and] find out what's going on.’
ME: Can you tell us who Rob Mortimer is for those folks who don't know?
RH: Rob Mortimer was the former publisher of the Torrington Telegram and really the publisher of the entire Wyoming group [of News Media Corporation newspapers]. He's been with News Media for over 20 years. He was born and raised in Torrington, Wyoming
ME: What was his response when you called?
RH: All of this happened seven days ago, so he was still a little shellshocked about what happened because he didn't get advanced notice either. He was in the process of saying, ‘I'm just scrambling, trying to put something together. There may be people that want to buy bits and pieces of it, but that doesn't guarantee all of the publications.’ I said, ‘Well, what would it take to get all of them?’ And he said, ‘I don't know, let me call JJ Tompkins,’ who's the CEO of News Media Corporation. And Rob called me back and he said, ‘I think ballpark it's this [amount].’
I then called our banking partner, First Northern Bank, and spoke with their president, Travis Lauren, and said, ‘What's this gonna take?’ And he said, ‘Rob, we'll do what it takes to get it done.’ If this goes through, we'll be borrowing against the Buffalo Bulletin. When I got that positive response, I called Rob Mortimor back and I said, ‘Hey, I think that we can get this together. Are you willing to invest too?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’
ME: You both have Wyoming roots. You guys have been running the [Buffalo Bulletin] paper since 1996. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about why it is important to have our Wyoming papers managed and run by people from here?
JSH: I think fundamentally, a community newspaper should both lead and reflect its community. When people pick up the Buffalo Bulletin today, when it comes back from being printed and it's for sale in grocery stores [and] in convenience stores, I want them to see a lifestyle and people who are familiar to them. That's really important to me.
I also think it's important for a newspaper to lead. Sometimes that means uncomfortable reporting on uncomfortable things or uncomfortable conversations. That can be really hard in a small town because these are people you're gonna see at your kids' soccer game on the sidelines, or you're gonna see them at church on Sunday. But I think it's the job of the newspaper to hold up the mirror to the community, but also to lead discussions in the community where, good or bad.
I'm in the newsroom all week long and not a single week passes that I don't get a phone call or an email from someone looking for something that was published in the Buffalo Bulletin at some point since 1884. That makes me really cognizant of the fact that we are our community scrapbook. This is the history that's been written down about Johnson County, Wyoming, and if it weren't for the Buffalo Bulletin, that history wouldn't get written down, period.
RH: My grandfather came to Buffalo in 1956 and worked as an editor. He bought the paper in 1960. My dad [and Jack Williams] bought that from him in 1964. Well, in 1993, I came to Newcastle, Wyoming and bought the Newcastle Newsletter Journal. I operated that for three years, and then my folks called me and said, ‘How'd you like to buy a newspaper?’
So in ‘96 I moved back. I married Jen in 2005 and she started working as a part-time reporter. Eventually, that became a full-time reporter, and eventually, that became the most award-winning editor we've ever had.
I know that we matter, and oftentimes, people don't know what they have until they lose it. I think these communities got to experience a little bit of that. If Jen and Rob Hicks and Rob Mortimer from Podunk, Wyoming can go and buy eight newspapers that were closing and make them viable and vibrant again, [maybe] people will take that lesson and say, ‘Why can't this be replicated everywhere?’
Our belief in the importance of news, and our belief in the staff of these newspapers, if that can work and be successful, I think that maybe we can create a new national narrative that newspapers aren't dying.
