In a Town of 4,900, Two Newspapers Can Be a Crowd

REEDSPORT, Ore. — Go figure.

At a time when one newspaper per city is the national norm, the small coastal community of Reedsport suddenly has two. Just last month, the mayor and a crowd of well-wishers turned out for a ribbon-cutting to launch the Umpqua Post.

Now, the new weekly is in a head-to-head battle with the established Courier for subscribers and advertising dollars. All this in a community of 4,900 hit hard in recent years by downturns in the timber and fishing industries.

The new publication makes Reedsport one of only two Oregon communities with two general circulation weekly newspapers. The other is John Day.

“It’s an amazing thing,” says Scott Reynolds, a spokesman for the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Assn.

Over time, Reynolds predicts, only one paper will survive because a community such as Reedsport lacks the advertising dollars to support two newspapers.

But for now, Reedsport residents are enjoying the novelty of being a two-newspaper town. And many have good comments about the new Umpqua Post and the moxie of its co-publishers--Elizabeth Adamo and Nancie Hammond, both former employees of the Courier.

“I think competition is the best thing that can happen to anything,” said K.E. “Chick” Chickering, owner of a local antique shop.

Adamo and Hammond and their staff are obviously “fired up” to put out the best possible product, he says, and good changes are evident in the Courier since the rival publication emerged.

“It’s great,” Chickering says. “You can see the quality of both edging upward.”

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Adamo, 37, and Hammond, 36, say they didn’t set out to start a newspaper war with the Courier. Years ago, they shared the dream of someday buying the Courier--which dates back 80 years--from then-publisher Carl Olson.

A lifetime Reedsport resident, Adamo worked for five years as a jack of all trades for Olson, handling feature writing, photography and ad sales. Five years ago, she quit, Adamo says, because of frustration that she couldn’t accomplish more of her creative plans.

“I left with the idea I was going to make some money and buy the paper,” she says.

She went to work flagging traffic on highway construction jobs and made some money, but not nearly enough. She ultimately joined forces with Hammond, a friend from Portland who moved to Reedsport four years ago and eventually went to work selling ads at the Courier.

Hammond said she inquired about buying the paper the day Olson hired her.

“He said we would work something out,” Hammond recalls. “That’s the whole reason I went to work there.”

But it didn’t work out. Olson had heart problems and died at age 50 last July after being sick for months. His son, Dan Olson, 24, took over the Courier after his father’s death and didn’t want to sell. He says he knew nothing of any verbal agreement between the women and his father.

Stymied by Olson’s refusal, the two women fretted about what to do. They say they like the young publisher and still had loyalty to the Courier, but they wanted to make their dream come true.

So they took the advice of Adamo’s aunt, Amelia Post of Miami, and struck out on their own with money they had put aside to buy the Courier. And yes, Adamo says, the newspaper name was chosen to honor Aunt Amelia, who is not only a financial backer but calls regularly with good advice.

Hammond quit her job at the Courier about a month before the first Post edition was published Nov. 6. The two women say they put all their financial resources plus what they could borrow into the paper.

Most of the money went for high-tech computer publishing equipment. They rented an old storefront on Fir Avenue in downtown Reedsport and filled it with furniture donated by friends or purchased at secondhand stores. The best desk is out front for office manager Lucy Spurgeon. “Just so we could fool people into thinking all our furniture is like that,” Hammond says.

The start-up hasn’t been easy. The two women had hoped to ease into newspaper ownership under the tutelage of Carl Olson. Instead, they learned whatever they could from whomever they could find, plus a lot by trial and error.

The two women have put in long hours, writing most of the stories as well as handling advertising, production and myriad other chores. They are assisted by one part-time and two full-time employees.

But they’ve been satisfied with their product. The paper--printed at a plant in North Bend--has an airy, well-designed look with large crisp photographs. Jammed with local news and features, the paper comes out on Wednesday--the day before the Courier. And the new publishers stretch deadlines to make sure they get stories about Monday night’s City Council meeting in the Wednesday paper.

“The thing I like most is hearing people say they read it from front to back,” Adamo says.

Subscription orders have been coming in, and Hammond says the response of advertisers has been good--87 in a recent issue. Their goal is a subscription base of 2,000--more than the Courier has now.

They know going head-to-head with an established newspaper is risky, but they say they are confident that a quality product will enable them to survive. And their success doesn’t necessarily mean the demise of the Courier, which has a broader financial base, they say. Olson also owns a press used for printing jobs, prints several other newspapers and sells office supplies.