In November, the Reno News & Review celebrated its 32nd birthday. In the entirety of those 32 years, I am not sure there’s ever been a moment when the RN&R wasn’t struggling, to at least some degree.
The paper was founded as Nevada Weekly, and after a year and a half, the publication was insolvent. The owners of the News & Review newspapers in Sacramento and Reno came to town and saved the publication.
I was a summer intern for the RN&R in 1996, a temp employee in 1997, the news editor in 1999-2000, and the editor in 2000-2001—and for that entire time, we were told the financial picture was less than stellar. I kept in touch with the editors and publishers in the years that followed, and whenever I’d ask how the publication was doing, the best answer I ever got was “Eh, OK.”…