The End of the Roswell Daily Record?

 

While in Roswell for the festival, I noticed that the Roswell Daily Record in the vendor’s box was from Thursday. One of the locals told me that the paper was no longer a daily but was now a weekly. I wasn’t surprised because many of the formerly daily newspapers had reduced their publication schedules.

The Roswell Daily Record building in the 1990s. The tree is gone.
Photo by Kevin Randle.

Our local paper had gone from a daily to three times a week. It was published on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday. It was a thinner paper and the color that had once brightened it was basically gone.

On July 13, the owners of the Daily Record announced that the newspaper, that had alerted the world to the Roswell crash in 1947, would cease operation. I suppose the Internet, cable news and a nation that preferred listen to their news rather than read it in a newspaper had all contributed to its demise.

But then, just hours, well, maybe a couple of days later, the Daily Record reported that Pat Davis, founder and publisher of the New Mexico News Group and Ctrl+P Publishing had bought the newspaper. It was announced:

After this week’s announcement that the paper would close, we looked for ways to write a new chapter for the paper, not an obituary. For the first time in over 100 years, the Beck family is trusting someone else to lead the paper through whatever comes next. We don’t take that responsibility lightly. To be clear, we can see that their tough decisions and dedication to mission have prepared it to serve for another generation. We're stepping in with new resources to ensure the Daily Record remains in service. Importantly for Barbara [Beck, the owner] and I, this deal ensures the paper remains 100% New Mexico-owned and locally staffed. In the meantime, we’ve provided some help to ensure payroll and the presses keep running.

New Mexico News Group will begin publishing in August which is basically next week. I don’t know what the publishing schedule will be or when the first issue will appear. But the important point here is that for now the Roswell Daily Record survives.