PINEDALE — You spoke, and we listened. Now, we’re taking action. This edition marks the final Pinedale Roundup to be sold at $1.25. Beginning in May, your weekly newspaper will cost $3.00 per issue off the rack, or $12 a month with a subscription. Said a different way, we’re asking you to kick in .39 cents a day to help ensure your community newspaper is around for the next 120 years to document life in our little slice of paradise.
This should not come as a surprise. We’ve been talking about a price increase since we took over in September 2025. Doubling the price of a subscription will generate about $50,000 in revenue for the newspaper, a necessary increase to fund a full-time reporter that you and I both so desperately need. The Roundup only has one person working in its newsroom, and that’s me, the editor. We still have to cover the ever-rising costs of newsprint, ink, running the presses, postage and shipping, along with other overhead like office rent and utilities. Because of those expenses, this newspaper is only clearing $21,000 a year, which is not enough to support more staff. We’re not even able to offer health insurance to our current staff. Having the extra $50,000-to-$63,000 in revenue from the price increase would bring in enough to hire a full-time reporter, and that means more robust news coverage for our readers and a more informed Sublette County. Survey says, we all agree we want that.
Focus groups and feedback
We held focus groups and conducted reader surveys throughout March. There were about 20 people across two focus groups, and 165 who responded to the reader survey. One focus group thought $3 was a reasonable price increase. The other group didn’t want an increase at all. In the reader surveys, the $2 to $2.50 range received 53% support. More than 70% of respondents said they would pay more if they knew the newspaper was struggling.
Teri Finneman, a journalism professor from Kansas whom we’ve patterned with to revive rural news, conducted these in-person focus groups for me at the Pinedale Library Lovatt Room, so that folks could speak honestly without worrying about my feelings or influence. I can’t thank her enough for her expertise, time and energy spent on helping us. We’re so grateful that so many people took time out of their busy lives to provide us with real, thoughtful feedback that we could use to make informed decisions as we work to make your community newspaper a better reflection of you.
On that note, the top five topics of most interest were local government, feature stories, business, education, and obits and announcements. The items of least interest to respondents were tourism, weather, religion, and agriculture — that last one definitely caught me by surprise. As we’re able to increase our staffing, we’ll be mindful of these areas.
Readers Board launching
We’ve really enjoyed hearing from you. In fact, the process has been so great that we’re launching a new avenue to keep that conversation going. This summer, we’ll be launching our new Readers Board. It will consist of 10-12 members who will serve for a one-year term, meeting once each quarter to provide feedback. We are looking for at least one, preferably two, high school-age members to serve on the Readers Board as well. Subscribers-only are eligible to serve on this board. If you are interested, please email your name and a short explanation of your interest to cali@pinedaleroundup.com and we’ll be in touch.
Press Club
Another exciting outcome from your feedback is our new Press Club program, which soft-launched in February. Thanks to our new partnership with the Wyoming Community Foundation, we are now able to accept tax-deductible donations. We have set a goal to bring in $10,000 in Press Club donations in our first year. Combined with our price increase, this will help ensure funding for a full-time reporter’s salary. We’d love to be able to hire two reporters, like we had when I was hired back in 2022.
Whether you give $5, $50, $5,000 or $50,000, you’ll be invited to our community picnic and have your name published alongside other Press Club sponsors in a full-page ad that runs each year. Businesses that donate will receive free subscriptions for their employees. For example, a business that gives $1,000 to be a Press Club member would receive five free subscriptions for its employees (valued at $600), be featured in the full-page ad with other Press Club members, get a 30-second free video ad featured on our Facebook page, and two tickets to our community picnic.
Interns
This summer, you’ll see two new faces wearing press passes around Sublette County and I hope you will welcome these young reporters warmly. We have partnered with the Sublette County Chamber of Commerce to host a high school intern this summer as part of the Pathways Program. I’m interviewing three interested high schoolers this week, and I look forward to introducing our new intern to you in May.
We also received $5,000 in funding from the Wyoming Community Foundation Press Forward to fund a college-level internship for 10 weeks this summer. We’re currently advertising at community colleges and universities throughout Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Colorado. Thanks to a generous donation from High Country Suites, we’re able to provide free housing for that person for the entirety of the internship. This donation was born out of a conversation in one of the focus groups and we are tremendously thankful for this opportunity.
Getting news to you faster
Another piece of feedback we heard is that it feels like an eternity between Thursdays when your paper comes out. Nearly everyone in our focus groups and 50% of survey respondents were interested in an E-Newsletter. So this summer, I’ll be launching our new E-Newsletter. It will go out on Mondays. Don’t roll your eyes yet! This isn’t just reproduced content from the newspaper. This is an entirely separate supplement, designed to give you a little preview of the week, with exclusive online content and a comprehensive calendar of events countywide. Current subscribers will be automatically enrolled to receive the E-Newsletter.
You probably noticed an uptick in our postings on Facebook lately as well — 57% of respondents said they wanted to see more postings on social media, so we’re making it happen. One of our interns will be taking this on as a special project.
Other events
We also heard from 63% of folks who feel like they don’t know anyone who works at the paper, so we want to change that! Come hang out with us tonight, Thursday, April 30, from 5-7 p.m. We have partnered with the Chamber and Miss Sublette County to host a Mixer at our office, 41 South Lake Ave. in Pinedale. In addition to tours of our facility, a trip down memory lane in the archives, raffles for a deeply discounted ad package and a free year-long subscription, we’ll have live music by John Fogerty, adoptable pets from Happy Endings Animal Rescue, cocktails and food — Caprese skewers, beef and cream cheese pinwheels, deviled eggs, antipasto skewers, and cracker and cheese boards. We hope to see you tonight! Look for the green and white balloons.
We’re also in talks with a local partner to host a Primary Election candidate forum this summer, so stay tuned for additional information on that. Our Primary Election Voters Guide will come out in the Aug. 6 Pinedale Roundup. If you want an advertisement in what will be one of our most-read sections of the year, contact Cortney Reed at cortney@pinedaleroundup.com.
