It was almost inevitable once Western Communications installed Robin Fornoff as the Triplicate’s editor that changes were coming to the Triplicate and it seems all of the newspapers in the Western Communications stable Newspaper. I use that term loosely, as it has been some time since the Triplicate could have been considered an objective “newspaper”.   When I read Tony Reed’s editorial on Saturday in the paper’s last edition announcing the end, “Well, it happened, officially”, the terms fair, accurate, and accountable stood out as hardly an apt description of what passed for news in the Triplicate over the past ten years or so. While Editor Fornoff may not have been directly involved in the demise of Western Communications, his steadfast bias in reporting the news and creating narratives did nothing to bolster the bottom line of the over all operation.  If the Triplicate was representative of the entire Western line up, it can’t be very surprising that the leftward slant of the Triplicate would alienate a large share of potential readers.  Perhaps if the print media were to return to objective news, their collective futures may not be as bleak.  Propaganda has a way of catching up.

Now that Editor Fornoff, Jessica Cejnar and hopefully Tony Reed are off to new exciting career possibilities, perhaps  the new owners, Country Media, Inc., can inject a new sense of fair, accurate, accountable, and most importantly objective reporting into our local newspaper.  I don’t mean the kind that Mr. Reed was alluding to in his final editorial in the Triplicate.  If there is any sense of what that direction that will point, perhaps looking over the dozen or so newspaper that they already own will be indicative.  I have a sense of a much more even handed and objective kind of wind blowing into the local newspaper if the other newspapers in the group are in any way representative of Country Media.  

Hopefully the new staff of the Triplicate will report the news rather than construct it.  I am not sure how many readers viewed the Triplicate’s coverage of Del Norte County, but I am hoping that the
front page of the Triplicate will no longer be a dumping ground for B section style coverage and it will be supplanted with actual news stories.  Far too often real news never saw the light of day in the
Triplicate, thanks to the reporting staff and the former editor of the Triplicate.

At this point there does not seem to be any indication when Country Media will begin publishing in Del Norte and Curry Counties, but I say bring it on.  Local newspapers printing local stories have a place in small town life that cannot be under estimated.  While many in the industry bemoan the advent of social media and computer driven e-papers, there is space for both as long as the media remembers that it is not for them to be doing our thinking for us.  There are too many small town newspapers that are quite successful bringing the local world to its readers.  It looks like Country Media may have learned that lesson and will be a welcome presence in Del Norte and Curry Counties.