I’ve written a lot lately about the struggles daily newspapers are facing, including the layoffs and furloughs that have hit the Las Cruces Sun-News, which is undergoing a major restructuring.
Meanwhile, the other major Las Cruces newspaper — the weekly Las Cruces Bulletin — appears to be doing just fine.
Not only has the Bulletin added several positions in the last few months, but the company that owns the Bulletin, the locally based FIG Publications, is in the process of purchasing the weekly Rio Rancho Observer, according to an article on the Rio Rancho paper’s Web site.
That’s quite an investment for a small, Las Cruces-based company that previously didn’t own any publications other than the Bulletin.
In addition to taking over the Observer, FIG Publications will take over the Kirtland Air Force Base Nucleus, the newspaper for the military base, the Observer reported.
FIG Publications is purchasing the newspapers from the Arizona Company Wick Communications. The change will take place on Friday.
“I am sincerely pleased and honored to work with Wick Communications on adding The Rio Rancho Observer as our first publication outside the Las Cruces Bulletin,” FIG Publications Chief Operations Officer David McCollum, who also is the publisher of the Bulletin, was quoted by the Observer as saying. “I truly believe a community’s hometown newspaper is at the heart of the community, and the Rio Rancho Observer is as old as the community itself.”
McCollum said he his “thrilled” by the opportunity.
“The City of Rio Rancho is truly a city of vision, and I think that vision is bright despite the current economic challenges,” the Observer quoted him as saying.