ARCHIVED  January 1, 1997

Daily newspapers vie for growing Windsor market

WINDSOR — Can a weekly newspaper compete with a daily newspaper? How about two or three?

The answer is “yes.” Sort of. Yes, the daily has the advantage of reporting news quickly. Yes, the daily often gets the jump on important news stories. And yes, the daily has more readers. The weekly, however, often has the loyalty of its subscribers who turn to its pages for local news about schools, churches, clubs and organizations — news not usually found in a daily.

And when the daily newspaper is the Greeley Tribune, and the weekly newspaper is the Windsor Beacon, then what you have is what both sides term “friendly competition.”

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“They print us and do a very good job,´ said Roger Lipker, publisher of the Windsor Beacon, referring to his main competition. “At the same time, we are competitive. & People look to us for complete coverage as it affects Windsorites.”

Chris Cobler, managing editor at the Tribune, calls it “friendly competition.” “We’re in competition with everybody, but it’s a different sort of competition with a weekly. It’s not a cutthroat competition by any means. We wanted to make it clear that we’re the daily that covers Windsor. We consider ourselves the Weld County Paper.”

The Tribune packages Windsor stories on Page 3 under Windsor/Regional News. The page, which appears in the paper’s first edition, is printed Tuesday through Friday. The paper’s second edition is remade to focus on Greeley/Regional news. Cobler maintains that recipients of both editions receive essentially the same news, just in different packages.

Tribune reporter Donovan Henderson, who lives in Windsor, has an office in the Tribune-owned Fence Post, a rural-format publication based in Windsor. Coverage of prep sports is left to the Tribune’s sports staff.

The Tribune began its Windsor bureau in April 1994. The Beacon’s Lipker recalls a meeting he had with Dave Trussell, publisher of the Greeley Tribune. “He told me, ‘We both serve different purposes,'” Lipker said, adding that he was skeptical at first. But now Lipker concedes, “He was probably quite wise.”

That’s where the true difference lies, Lipker says. The Beacon’s edge is its ability to focus on local news. “Local, local, local,” he said. “Now, if we decide to go daily, then we’ll get ourselves in trouble.” Circulation of the Beacon, Lipker added, has increased along with the size of the community. He says he is not aware of any subscribers who have dropped the Beacon in favor of the Tribune.

Other Northern Colorado dailies — the Loveland Reporter-Herald and the Fort Collins Coloradoan — do cover Windsor if it pertains to their circulation area. This fall, for example, Windsor’s Town Board’s intention to approve the 3,000-acre Highlands Annexation — and the strong opposition against it by some residents — drew intense coverage from both Larimer County dailies, but primarily because the annexation abuts Loveland’s city limit and crosses over into Larimer County.

“Our interest in Windsor is largely driven by the interest our readers would have in that area,´ said Ken Amundson, managing editor at the Loveland Reporter-Herald. His paper, he added, typically has one or two Windsor-based stories a week on its Front Range page.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan, too, has begun to cover Windsor more in its pages, but Dave Greiling, managing editor, said that’s part of the newspaper’s increased coverage of outlying areas in Larimer County.

“Windsor is certainly a growing, attractive area.” But, he added, the Coloradoan is not considering adding a bureau in Windsor — yet. “I can’t say we’d never do it. It’s a question of time,” Greiling said.

WINDSOR — Can a weekly newspaper compete with a daily newspaper? How about two or three?

The answer is “yes.” Sort of. Yes, the daily has the advantage of reporting news quickly. Yes, the daily often gets the jump on important news stories. And yes, the daily has more readers. The weekly, however, often has the loyalty of its subscribers who turn to its pages for local news about schools, churches, clubs and organizations — news not usually found in a daily.

And when the daily newspaper is the Greeley Tribune, and the weekly newspaper is the Windsor Beacon,

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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