Silver anniversary: Idaho Mountain Express marks 25 years

Weekly newspaper publishes its 1,300th edition

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By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

It’s a life of deadlines, this challenging business of publishing newspapers. But the work itself has a way of getting in your blood and making all the labor worthwhile.

Take, for instance, yesterday’s flurry of activity in the Ketchum office of the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper. From dawn to dusk, 30 people worked for a single purpose—getting the Thanksgiving edition ready to be printed.

They checked facts, discussed issues, proofread articles, called sources and advertisers, double-checked facts, tallied up the numbers and did routine maintenance. They made compromises and stuck to their guns. They made it look good.

Always, the noise level in the newspaper office is high. It’s not a place for the faint of heart because deadline pressure makes emotions run high. Employees argue. Eventually they control themselves. Laughter is a welcome release.

This week is a little special around the Express office.

Today’s Thanksgiving issue marks the weekly newspaper’s 25th anniversary. The first edition was published Nov. 27, 1974. This silver anniversary issue is sneaking in just under the deadline of the Millennium.

It’s been a week to take pause and think about things like durability and community acceptance.

Twenty-five years isn’t long in the overall picture, but it’s a small triumph over the perilous shoals of competition and fickle public reading tastes.

This is no small feat in an information-saturated world where even in a relatively small, isolated community like the Wood River Valley, competition for consumer attention and advertiser dollars is brisk, often fierce, from radio, television and other print media.

Survival itself is remarkable.

But the curiosity for answers makes survival possible, even necessary. Life raises questions. Newspapers are forums for discussion. And there has been a simple formula for the 1,300 weekly forums that the Express has published since 1974.

Pam Morris, Mountain Express publisher for 19 years, said, "The Express’ secret is simple: it covers the news and knows where it lives. People want information to improve their own lives and surroundings."

Besides its principled stands on the issues and hard work by a changing staff that has produced over 220 journalism awards for excellence, the Idaho Mountain Express is remarkable for three things.

The first is its fiery origin. Second is its stable ownership.

The third is the diverse community in which the Express operates, a community that over the years has supported the newspaper while supplying an enthusiastic and talented staff.

The newspaper’s beginnings

The typewriter incident is true, and it shows the kind of youthful zeal that kick-started the Express.

Evelyn Backman, infuriated by editor Steve Lathrop’s comments about a story she had written, hurled a typewriter at Lathrop in the small, two-room, Giacobbi Annex office that was the Express’ first home.

She missed. The typewriter hit the wall. Lathrop, the first Express editor, claimed that the machine landed on his toe on the rebound.

It’s a story that’s told, embellished and retold whenever Express oral histories are brought out of the woodwork—mainly because it involves two of the newspaper’s founders and shows the passion they brought to their cause.

Lathrop and Evelyn Backman, traveling from the East, had arrived together in Ketchum in August 1972.

Yale graduate Lathrop began working construction. With no journalism background, Backman parlayed her skills writing history papers into a $30-a-week job reporting for the fledgling Ketchum Tomorrow weekly newspaper.

The lure of the newspaper was too strong for Lathrop, who started hanging around the newspaper office, in the Colonnade building. He eventually got a job reporting, and soon became editor.

As he became familiar with Ketchum Tomorrow operations, Lathrop grew increasingly concerned with who owned and controlled the paper. He felt the newspaper should be owned by its employees. But none of the five Tomorrow owners actually worked at the paper.

In 1974, Lathrop bought the share of Tomorrow stock owned by Doug Sweet, which entitled Lathrop to attend stockholder meetings and vote in the decision-making process.

At one meeting, Lathrop advocated employee bonuses and the notion of employee participation in any profits from a potential sale of the paper. Disagreeing were the other owners, who had been planning to make capital purchases instead of paying bonuses. They fired Lathrop as editor on Nov. 16, 1974.

Within two days the entire staff of the Tomorrow voted to join Lathrop in his exodus.

The staff consisted of Lathrop, Backman, columnist and ad salesman Martha Poitevin, typesetter Linda Brown, reporter Chuck Gates, ad designer Pam Tunno and photographer John Heinrich.

With a hurried two-week planning session in local bars and restaurants, they created an employee-owned newspaper called the Idaho Mountain Express.

Backman, who later married local attorney Jim Phillips, said, "The name was chosen to denote the area and railroad heritage of Sun Valley. Mountain Express did not limit the newspaper’s coverage to any one town or to the Wood River Valley. And Idaho was added to allow for coverage of statewide issues."

Scraping together a little money from local investors like James "Dizzy" Desnoyers, borrowing typewriters and offering former Tomorrow advertisers one week of free advertising, the Idaho Mountain Express published its 28-page inaugural issue on Nov. 27, 1974.

Times were different then. Gerald Ford was president, a season ski lift ticket on Baldy cost $400, Ketchum had only 1,500 residents, Sun Valley just 300 and real estate prices were a fraction of today’s.

But the Express was an idea whose time had come.

Morris said, "The newspaper was a radical idea. Its staff members believed they could eventually create a stable newspaper through employee ownership, a few thousand dollars and a dream."

Martha Poitevin, who later married Big Wood Presbyterian Church minister Curtis Page, stated then, "This will be a newspaper where the people who do the work will have the final say on editorial and business policy. We hope to avoid the owner-staff disputes over editorial policy which plague so many newspapers."

Lathrop resigned as editor of the Express in 1977, the same year the Ketchum Tomorrow went out of business. Yearning to work more with his hands, he became the quality control manager at a print shop in the Boston area.

He kept fond memories.

Lathrop said, "Those were wonderful people I worked with. I was very glad to be a part of it. Few people ever get the chance to do anything as exciting as we did."

Here are the original newspaper rules, as set forth by Lathrop:

No bylines in the Express—everybody would share in the glory or the blame.

Everybody would make the same salary of $100 per week.

All employees would own 10 shares of stock.

Ad sales people would receive no commission—they shouldn’t get a bonus just because their work could be quantified.

Stable ownership

Those rules have changed over the years, but the underlying principles of the Express have remained pretty much the same—in large part because of stable ownership.

Historically, independent newspapers have been owned and operated by families. It encouraged continuity through the good times and bad, and, theoretically, gave newspapers strong foundations of trust.

What’s remarkable about the Express ownership is that it features a group of people who are not related except for their love of newspapers. Without family ties, they have managed to stay together, overcome their disagreements and make joint decisions for a quarter century.

Several still work at the newspaper.

They answer the phones, accommodate the public and deal with the deadlines each week. Indeed, the six principal owners of the company have nearly 150 years of combined involvement with the Express.

Connie Johnson worked for the Express in that tiny Giacobbi Annex office and she’s still the Express business manager, 24 years later.

Pocatello-born Pam Morris was a Ketchum waitress when she took a job as an Express typesetter in 1976. She has been publisher of the growing newspaper since 1980.

Jeff Cordes, who began his working life in the restaurant business, was a Blaine County School District custodian when he became the first Express sports editor in 1977.

A skier from Trail, British Columbia, Elaine Somerville was a longtime Express photographer. She worked 23 years at the paper before returning to Canada this fall.

All four are Express owners, taking part in not only the week-to-week work but also in the frequent board meetings to guide operations.

Interestingly, Jim Desnoyers, who invested money to get the paper started, remains the Express’ computer consultant and Betty Bell, one of the paper’s first columnists, returned to work a couple of years ago and lays out the all-important classifieds each week.

Martha Poitevin Page was Express publisher and editor from 1977-80. She is chairman of the board of Express Publishing. She, her husband Curtis and their three children now live in Indianapolis. They visit Ketchum often and keep close tabs on the company.

Although she hasn’t been a permanent staff member since 1982, board president Evelyn Phillips is still closely involved with the appearance of the company’s publications—using her design skills to monitor how the products look.

Outdated rules about gender and management have undergone seismic changes in the last 25 years of the 20th century. The Express has been a trendsetter in this way as well.

Traditionally, male-dominated newspapers have hired women to write the social column, pay the bills and accept classifieds. But, throughout its history, key management roles at the Express have been held very effectively by women. They’ve surmounted traditional barriers with grace and without a lot of fanfare.

And with humor, as well.

Former Express advertising director Peter Boltz remembers his excitement and wonder at entering the newspaper office for the first time. He found a group of people willing to roll with the punches.

He said, "I vividly remember two dogs lying on the floor, Bonnie Raitt playing on the stereo and Pam Morris sitting at the front desk saying, "Who are you?"

An amazing community

At its best, the Idaho Mountain Express reflects an extraordinary community—from the captains of industry and ski bums of swanky Sun Valley to the families and farmers of down-to-earth south county.

The newspaper, which prints between 13,000 and 15,000 copies weekly, has evolved into a lively tabloid smorgasbord appealing to a wide variety of tastes. Copies are snapped up as quickly as they’re distributed.

Bargain hunters scan hundreds of classified and display ads. The recreation-minded populace devours an opulent feast of sports features and scores. Morris hammers out feisty, edgy editorials on current topics.

There are vital statistics on deaths, births and police blotter news, along with opinionated letters to the editor and thorough coverage of planning and zoning and government news in the booming valley.

Arts and events coverage is popular for a community that values leisure time, and the Local Life community section caters to the people and organizations that give immense flavor to daily life.

Its purpose, as the paper has matured, has been to give valley residents a sturdy anchor amidst the winds of change.

From its beginnings as a small, Ketchum-based paper often dismissed for idealistic views, the Express has become the authoritative voice of Blaine County’s diverse population.

Many battles have been fought to maintain the paper’s mission and its rich heritage of principle.

The Express’ insistence on being a "free circulation" newspaper initially made it an outcast among the so-called "real" newspapers.

The first Idaho Mountain Express delivery vehicle.

 

Morris said, "The idea of a free circulation newspaper was anathema in the industry. For this, the Express was banned from membership in the Idaho Newspaper Association for the first 10 years of its life."

She campaigned until the Express was accepted into membership and also fought in court to gain official status of the Express to accept public notice advertisements.

Publishers everywhere become prickly when press freedoms are threatened and Morris is no exception. From the start she declared war on Blaine County government bodies that met behind closed doors

Morris said, "The valley had been without a real news-seeking newspaper for so long that by 1974 when the Express began to publish, many local government bodies thought they had the God-given right to meet in private.

"When Express reporters began to show up, some in the government were outraged. Some tried to slam the door on reporters."

The pledge in the newspaper’s first "Our Policy in Brief" editorial back in 1974 was to be a watchdog of human affairs, "to oppose increases in the economic hardships which people of average resources must experience to live here."

Such economic hardships have become more severe as the valley has grown and become more expensive. But Morris, editorially, has been relentless in championing the need for "affordable housing."

And, the Express’ role as an environmental watchdog has been well-defined by its editorial policy.

Corporately the Express has stayed alive in a tough business environment by sticking to conservative business goals. Innovation hasn’t been ignored, however. On occasion the company has experimented and gambled.

The Express was the first Idaho newspaper to actively publish its own Internet website. It contains current news and features from the print edition, as well as links to its Sun Valley Guide magazine and Real Estate Guide.

The legendary "Green Van"

All in all, it’s been an amazing 25 years in an amazing community.

Morris said, "It was a time of growing up and learning. The newspaper weathered drought, controversy, cutthroat competition, recession and perhaps hardest of all, it weathered its own internal growing pains.

"It grew into an organization that offers interesting jobs, educational and entertaining information and broad advertising exposure for businesses.

"It grew into an organization dedicated to serving a community of special, crazy, talented, exasperating, argumentative, educated, hard-working, generous and humorous citizens and visitors."

The rewards of publishing a newspaper are the silver lining in all the hard work and deadline pressure that have piled up over 25 years.

Morris said, "A weekly newspaper has up-close and personal contacts with its readers—something big-city journalists and publishers tell me they crave. The community can have a sense of ownership in the local newspaper that’s impossible in a big city.

"Readers are friends, neighbors and visitors.

"They tell newspaper staff members what they think and what’s on their minds whenever we see them—in businesses, public meetings, on street corners, in coffee shops, on the ski lift or leaning across a grocery cart."

Jeff Cordes began his newspaper career in 1972 and has been the Idaho Mountain Express sports editor since 1977. Evelyn Phillips, co-founder of the Mountain Express, and Mountain Express columnist Pat Murphy also contributed to this story.