Corporate Partner Spotlight Santa Fe New Mexican
An Independent Voice of Support The 17-decade history of the Santa Fe New Mexican is proudly embedded in its brand. “The West’s Oldest Newspaper” has faithfully brought northern New Mexico the daily news from Territorial times through statehood, during two World Wars, and from the last century’s pandemic to the current one. Although times have never been tougher for independently owned local newspapers, the New Mexican is riding out the COVID-19 storm. New Mexican marketing director Henry Lopez says that despite the paper’s decreased revenue and reduced staff, its Web traffic has increased by 50 percent since the pandemic’s onset. “It’s proof positive that folks see us as their resource,” Lopez says. Lopez called one of the newspaper’s main missions “a stewardship of the cultural life and economy of Santa Fe,” though northern New Mexico’s relationship with the New Mexican is equally strong. “We take seriously our role in helping the folks who help the community,” he says. The New Mexican annually gives close to a quarter of a million dollars to a long list of area nonprofits, including the Museum of New Mexico Foundation. As a Premier Corporate Partner of the Foundation, the New Mexican is a significant voice of support for the Museum of New Mexico system and its cultural community. “It’s just a match that makes a lot of sense,” Lopez says, adding that, in their respective missions to support arts and culture, the goals of the Foundation and the New Mexican “dovetail nicely.” While reporting the news in 2020 has become much more difficult, Lopez says the New Mexican is committed to providing a vital community service. Most of the newsroom has worked from home since the spring. Reporters interview subjects through masks, Zoom and over the phone. Photographers maintain social distance with longer lenses. Editors and designers shape pages in isolation. Day after day, as it has since 1849, the New Mexican goes to press.
The Santa Fe New Mexican, a corporate partner of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, makes its daily print run before being distributed to readers throughout northern New Mexico. Photo courtesy Santa Fe New Mexican.
“You have frontline workers in every department coming up with different ideas about how to make things run more efficiently,” Lopez says. In an era of conglomerates that regularly gobble up small newspapers, reducing regional news, and blurring the boundaries between journalism and revenue, the local, independent focus of the New Mexican feels more valuable than ever. In keeping with its tradition of community service, the paper lowered its paywall through the pandemic, making coronavirus coverage free online. “Because the ownership lives here, because the management lives here, we have a better perspective,” Lopez says. “Much of northern New Mexico is a news desert. If we aren’t paying attention to it, nobody else is going to.” For information about corporate partnership, contact Mariann Lovato at 505.216.0849 or Mariann@museumfoundation.org.
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