Alamogordo Daily News finds new home on 8th Street - Alamogordo Daily News

Posted: 30 Apr 2021 07:08 AM PDT

Jessica Onsurez, Alamogordo Daily News Published 8:07 a.m. MT April 30, 2021

In the rear-most office of the Alamogordo Daily News I spied a roll of large papers peeking out from a dusty drawer.

For weeks I hunted for blueprints for the building at 518 24th St. What I found were several design spreads, marked up by the pens of unknown architects and newspaper administrators, dating to the 1970s.

Blue prints found among papers at the Alamogordo Daily News show the layout of the building on 24th Street.

(Photo: Jessica Onsurez)

It was a small insight into the large history contained in that building, which housed the Alamogordo Daily News for decades. It's a history that culminated this month with the sale of the building and the relocation of the Daily News to more modest offices on 8th Street.

The move was the result of shrinking staff and an increasingly digital work space (partly because of the pandemic but mostly because of the nature of journalism these days), and the desire of our corporate owners to dispose of real property (the cost of maintaining the aging 2,000-square-foot building was cumbersome) and to focus on the journalism.

A three-day rush to move into the new location on 8th Street followed the close of the sale to new owners who said they wished to remain anonymous and declined to comment on their plans for the building.

I cleared out desks, tidied up file cabinets and ventured into nooks and crannies, all revealing a fascinating history untold during my first two years as news director of the Daily News.

On a forgotten bookshelf was a red-bound Webster's dictionary, its cover held together by yellowing tape and proudly bearing a warning that read: "Lawitz. Steal it and DIE LIKE A DOG!!"

I was told that Lawitz was likely Jim Lawitz, once vice president at MediaNews Group which owned several regional newspapers including the Las Cruces Sun-News.

Jim Lawitz warned others away from his Webster's New Word Dictionary. The Dictionary was found among other books at the Alamogordo Daily News as staff prepared for a move out of the offices on 24th Street in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

(Photo: Jessica Onsurez)

Tucked in the farthest reaches of the top drawer in a beaten and bent metal desk was a sticky note that read "Welcome to the Alamogordo Daily News! Good luck!"

The note, likely left by former Daily News Reporter Jacqueline Devine to welcome her replacement, was left unread as shrinking budgets and layoffs reduced the editorial staff to a single reporter for the newspaper's entire coverage area in 2020.

As desk were cleared at the Alamogordo Daily News, this note written by former Daily News reporter Jackie Devine, was found in a desk drawer. It welcomes and wishes luck to the next reporter who would sit in her chair.

(Photo: Jessica Onsurez)

Among a haphazard collection of documents in the former office of Publisher Rynni Henderson was a 1971 inventory of assets. The inventory revealed that a 2,500 gallon ink tank had been installed a year earlier at a cost of $12,000. Only a day before I found the inventory, the tank had been removed from the site to be recycled as scrap metal. The printing press that had served the community for decades, too, had been scraped for metal months before.

The decommissioning of the building revealed a grand total of $2.47 salvaged from unused desks in various penny, dime and quarter denominations; innumerable keys for locks which had long been forgotten; faded awards for journalists who dedicated hours to getting the story right.

But most importantly it revealed that community newspapers like the Alamogordo Daily News, despite the challenges of our business, are just as essential today as they were in the heyday of print.

The relief on faces of patrons who wandered to the building that weekend when told the newspaper was not closing, just moving, was evident. Among them a gentleman who shared stories of his paper delivery route when he was 15 years old, a man who proudly claimed he'd been reading the Daily News all his 81 years, and a woman who still carried the front page sports photo of her daughter in her wallet.

And for that reason I ask you to continue to support community journalism by subscribing to the Alamogordo Daily News, and thank those subscribers who continue to turn to us for the stories that matter to them most.

What you need to know about the move

The Alamogordo Daily News will now be at 1408 8th Street in Alamogordo, N.M. As the Daily News works to make its new home on 8th Street comfortable, please bear with us.

The 24th Street office was closed to the public in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has remained shuttered as our community continues to fight the spread of coronavirus.

The staff of the Daily News began to work remotely during that time, and moved into a hybrid work environment only weeks ago.

The Alamogordo Daily News sign is removed on April 20 from the building on 24th Street in Alamogordo which long held the newspaper offices. The Daily News offices were relocated to a more modest location on 8th Street.

(Photo: Jessica Onsurez)

The new offices at 8th Street will remained closed to the public. What does that mean for services we usually offer to our subscribers and customers? Most of our services can be accessed by phone, email or online.

Those wishing to publish legal advertising can call 800-764-5420 or email their legal requests to legals@lcsun-news.com.

Classified advertisements can be placed by emailing classifieds@alamogordonews.com or by visiting our self-serve classifieds portal at http://classifieds.alamogordonews.com/. This portal can assist you in placing announcements, retail, garage sales and real estate and rentals.

Obituaries can be submitted by calling 800-764-5420, emailing customer service at AlamogordoDailyNews@gannett.com.

If you are interested in purchasing or updating a print or digital subscription login to www.alamogordonews.com or visit https://cm.alamogordonews.com/specialoffer/.

For any other needs customers are welcome to email communitynews@alamogordonews.com.

The Daily News continues its commitment to reporting on issues of import to Alamogordo and Otero County, and to delivering the best service to our subscribers and customers.

Jessica Onsurez can be reached at jonsurez@currentargus.com, @JussGREAT on Twitter at by phone at 575-628-5531.

Read or Share this story: https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/news/2021/04/30/alamogordo-daily-news-finds-new-home-8th-street/4874391001/

Nicholas M. Horrock, ‘old-school journalist’ at Newsweek and top papers, dies at 84 - The Washington Post

Posted: 30 Apr 2021 06:45 PM PDT

"Hospitals, museums, shops and homes have been looted," he wrote. "If the looters took nothing, they destroyed anything else they found, mindlessly tearing apart both the history of one of the first great civilizations on the earth and the history of individual families. In the litter of looting you persistently find family photos, a child's toy, a music school's violin, a family antique."

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