Employees | Ctrl+P Publishing
Fresh from its 50th anniversary celebration, the Santa Fe Reporter is returning to New Mexico ownership in a deal announced today by its previous owner/publisher and local Ctrl+P Publishing Group (newmexico.news).
Richard Meeker and Mark Zusman, publisher and editor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon, owned the paper for 27 years. While Meeker and Zusman remain staunch advocates of alternative weeklies, the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of local ownership, they say. So, with plans for a new venture in Oregon, they announced in March that they would sell the Reporter and their intention to sell only to a local buyer with a similar understanding and commitment to the type of journalism the Reporter produces.
In an interview with the Reporter, Meeker said several interested parties contacted him after the sale was announced in the spring, but only Pat Davis seemed to have the same understanding and commitment to the Reporter’s journalistic style. “I can confidently say we are leaving the Reporter in much better shape than we found it, and I am thrilled we have found the right person to take the helm of this urban treasure,” Meeker says.
Ctrl+P Publishing is the new owner of the Reporter, and Davis, 45, its president and owner, will serve as the Reporter’s new publisher. Since 2021, Ctrl+P has grown into one of the state’s largest news providers through several other New Mexico publications it has either founded or purchased: The Paper, a weekly newspaper, and City Desk ABQ, a new digital daily edition startup, both in Albuquerque, as well as local newspapers Corrales Comment, Sandoval Signpost and The Independent News in Edgewood.
With the acquisition of the Reporter, Ctrl+P Publishing now reaches more than 200,000 unique online and email subscribers each week through free local news products as well as shared state news and features. The combined subscriber list is believed to be the largest in the state.
“For the past 20 years, large corporate news organizations have hollowed out local newsrooms and allowed local news voices to wither,” Davis says. “Thanks to fans of local news here in New Mexico who have helped with investments big and small, we are giving local newsrooms back to local journalists and building a platform to have a statewide impact on some of the biggest issues facing New Mexico.”
Davis, a former police officer, nonprofit leader and politician on the mend, founded Ctrl+P in 2022 as a laboratory to preserve trusted local news brands for communities across New Mexico. By combining digital community engagement with trusted news brands, Ctrl+P helps local newsrooms navigate the new digital-print news landscape.
The Reporter’s interim editor, Julia Goldberg, will return to freelance work after the transition – including for the Reporter. Ctrl+P will launch a local and national search for a new editor later this month, Davis says.
Ctrl+P Publishing was represented in the transaction by Blackgarden Law of Albuquerque.
Ctrl+P Publishing and its brands are members of the Association of Alternative News Publishers (AAN), LION Publishers, New Mexico Out Business Alliance and the New Mexico Press Association. Publications under the Ctrl+P banner have received generous support from the New Mexico Local News Fund and Citizen Media Group.
Learn more about Ctrl+P Publishing: About us.
