Two publications set for Weld debut

GREELEY — Weld County will see two new publications this summer. Owners of The Weld Monthly Times expect to publish Aug. 20, and The Rocky Mountain Spirit˜s inaugural issue debuted July 16.Editors of both periodicals will leave hard news to the dailies. The Weld Monthly Times is a community newspaper, said George Snyder, who is acting as the paper˜s publisher on a consulting basis. The Rocky Mountain Spirit is a quarterly that will focus on interesting people and interesting features of Greeley, Fort Collins and Loveland, publisher Gail Haag said.
Haag was graphic artist for the recently defunct Greeley Style magazine.
"I liked magazine work so much I could not see stopping," Haag said.
Rocky Mountain Spirit will be a four-color magazine with a difference.
"I˜m trying to be a little more down-to-earth, a little more folksy," Haag explained. "Each issue will have a different theme," she said, "and I want to do an interesting job of it, so the writers have fun with it and the photographers have fun with it É I˜ve told the photographers, ÔGo for it. Get creative.˜"
Also, Haag points out, she has expanded the advertising base to include Loveland and Fort Collins. She hopes that will help keep the magazine viable where others have struggled.
The magazine is financed entirely by Haag. Luanne Kadlub, who edited Greeley Style, is managing editor for Rocky Mountain Spirit. Haag finds herself overwhelmed by the number of talented writers and photographers, and by the number of interesting people doing interesting things she has encountered already.
"Something I would like to do" Haag said, "is to bring together the interesting people in the area by having talented writers writing about them and talented photographers photographing them and putting a piece together that says, ÔThis is who we are.˜"
The Weld Monthly Times˜ emphasis will be on activities and community organizations, with a healthy dose of politics thrown in.
"When people pick this up, they˜ find out all the neat things going on in Greeley, Eaton and Evans," Snyder said. The paper, more of a news magazine than a newspaper, will treat politics even-handedly, he said, and will not endorse candidates or positions on issues. The emphasis will be on community activities and features.
Representatives of community organizations and not-for-profits such as Habitat for Humanity and the University of Northern Colorado will write feature stories for The Weld Monthly Times.
The paper will be direct-mailed to 24,086 addresses in Greeley, Eaton and Evans. Another 1,000 copies will be bulk-dropped at locations in those towns. The cost of mailings will be offset by the detachable coupons that will double as mailing labels for the paper, said James Anderson, general manager of The Weld Monthly Times.
Snyder works at KFKA 1310 AM in Greeley. His most-recent newspaper experience was at the now-defunct Today˜s Business. Prior to that, he worked at the Greeley Tribune, and he has managed several newspapers in the Washington, D.C., area.
The Weld Monthly Times will be a product of AO Publishing Inc., a corporation that also holds S&A Marketing and Andy International Network, an Internet publishing company. James Anderson is CEO of AO Publishing. Larry Anderson, vice president of sales for AO Publishing, will also manage sales for the Monthly Times. Special sections editor will be Joel Anderson, AO Publishing˜s executive vice president for Internet affairs.
The paper˜s founders had some help from the managers of The Forum, a Fort Collins monthly that is also a direct-mailed community newspaper, but The Weld Monthly Times shares no staff with that newspaper.