from The Albuquerque Journal
By RENE ROMO | The Albuquerque Journal
LORDSBURG – The three-inch-tall headline in today’s edition of The Independent Lordsburg Liberal summed up its own sad story: “EL FIN.”
The end.
After nearly 120 years, New Mexico’s oldest weekly newspaper rolled off the presses for the last time Wednesday.
Media giant Media News Group, which bought the little paper in October 2002, announced last week that a challenging economic climate forced the closure of the paper.
The newspaper’s fans said they felt its demise personally.
“This is like part of the family,” said 85-year-old Lordsburg resident Allen Hill. “Ever since my high school days, it’s just been a part of us.”
Hill, chairman of the board of the Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum, had signed a letter with other residents asking MediaNews to reconsider its decision.
The Liberal’s 39-year-old editor and publisher, Lordsburg native Lorenzo Alba Jr., said the last few days were difficult.
“Now it’s time to let go of something that is very near and dear to my heart. It’s like losing a love or a family member,” said Alba, who delivered the paper as a pre-teen.
Besides the bumpy local economy, another factor in the Liberal’s demise was the head-to-head competition against another weekly – the upstart Hidalgo County Herald – for advertisers and subscribers in a town of fewer than 3,000 residents.
Former Liberal employee Brenda Greene started the Herald in late 2000. She basically runs a onewoman operation, aided by her sister who works part-time as advertising manager.
Lordsburg Mayor Arthur Clark Smith said, “I don’t think there was any doubt that two newspapers could not survive in a small town. There’s just not enough advertising dollars.”
The surprise was that the Herald outlasted the paper owned by a company that owns more than 50 newspapers in a dozen states.
Greene said she, too, is sad to see the Liberal close. Her first post-college reporting job was at the Liberal in 1993 under the late Jack Walz, then owner and publisher, who ran the paper for more than two decades.
In 1994, Walz hired an eager high school student, Jason Watkins, who went on in 1999 to start his own local weekly, the Independent. Watkins merged his paper with the Liberal after buying it in February 2000.
Over the years, the Liberal covered all the major events in the community’s life. Among them: a train stop by presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in 1896; a 1927 visit by aviator Charles Lindbergh during a barnstorming tour; a stop by President Harry Truman in 1948.
But, in a tribute to the paper published today, Watkins, who now edits a San Diego magazine, said the paper’s true purpose was covering the little things that make up small-town life.
“If you grow up in this community, it’s likely the Lordsburg Liberal will run your birth announcement,” Watkins wrote. “When you’re married, your wedding announcement will run in the Liberal. So too will your child’s birth announcement. And when you die, the Liberal will run your obituary. Read in its entirety, from the first issue to the last, the Lordsburg Liberal tells the collective story of this community.”
Years ago, Smith said, it was not uncommon to see a local resident’s obituary on the front page.
“I’d go to work and people would say: ‘Man, is that the only thing going on in Lordsburg? You’ve got to put the obituary on the front page?’ ” Smith recounted. “Jack (Walz) would say, ‘In a small town, everybody’s important.’ ”
