History
Alamogordo Daily News claims 1898 as its founding date, but a case can be made for 1896. A predecessor, the Chief, was founded in Tularosa as a weekly in 1896, then moved to La Luz the next year and changed its name to Sacramento Chief. It was sold to the Alamogordo Printing Company in 1899 and continued under the same name briefly before becoming the Alamogordo News. [2] : 75 The paper continued as a weekly until the 1950s when it went daily. [3] : 9
The paper has been sold several times. Recently it was sold by Community Newspaper Holdings to MediaNews Group in 2001. [4] The paper is part of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership, a joint venture formed in 2003 between MediaNews Group and Gannett, with MediaNews Group the managing partner. [5]
The paper was an evening paper until September 1, 2006, published weekday evenings and Sunday mornings. It then switched to a morning paper, published daily except Mondays. [6] In 2015, Gannett acquired full ownership of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership. [7]
In March 2024, the newspaper announced it will switch from carrier to postal delivery. [8]
The paper regularly wins awards from the New Mexico Press Association [9] and from the New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors. [10]
Features
Coverage
Alamogordo Daily News is primarily a local newspaper. It has a staff of reporters and news editor to write local news. It also carries state, local, and national news from the Associated Press. It covers the city of Alamogordo and the neighboring village of Tularosa. The other incorporated area in Otero County, Cloudcroft, has its own newspaper, the Mountain Monthly, and does not get much coverage in this paper.
The paper publishes and shares some content with a free weekly tabloid, Hollogram, at nearby Holloman Air Force Base covering happenings on base.
Major sections
The paper is published in two sections:
- A: local news; weather; an Opinion page; an extensive listing of coming events
- B: sports; state, national, and international news (sometimes split with section A); comics; classified ads
There are several weekly editorial inserts (in addition to advertising inserts):
- Wednesday: As Seen on TV, a locally produced tabloid based on content from zip2it.com; complete TV listings and some feature stories
- Thursday: American Profile, a national rotogravure magazine published by Publishing Group of America
- Friday: Vámonos, an arts, entertainment, and dining tabloid covering Otero and Lincoln Counties; published by and appearing in Alamogordo Daily News and in Ruidoso News
- Sunday: USA Weekend , a national rotogravure magazine published by Gannett
The Opinion page combines editorials, editorial cartoons, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and occasionally short feature articles written by community members.
Recurring features
There are full-page sections of photos and press releases that appear once or twice a week:
- "¿Qué Pasa?" features upcoming or just-passed local events
- "Celebrate" features wedding announcements, anniversaries, promotions, etc.
- "Kudos" covers awards and other notable achievements
There are regular columns on gardening, on Alamogordo Public Schools, on Alamogordo Public Library, on animals in the Alameda Park Zoo, and on Otero County Community Health Council. "New Mexico Tally", a roll call from Thomas Voting Reports of how New Mexico's Congressional delegation voted on the most important bills, appears each Saturday.
Web site
The paper's web site carries all the locally-written editorial content. It is updated once or twice daily with breaking news stories that will appear in tomorrow's print edition. There is also an official newspaper blog.
Editorial position
Alamogordo Daily News rarely prints unsigned editorials or expresses an official editorial position. The few it publishes usually deal with endorsements for an election. For example, in the March 2008 municipal election it endorsed a candidate in the only contested City Commission race and endorsed a bond issue for street maintenance. [11] In 2006 it made endorsements for all races in the November general election. [12]
The paper runs a lead editorial in each issue, but they are nearly all reprinted from other newspapers, particularly other MediaNews Group papers. There is no editorial cartoonist, but each issue carries an editorial cartoon from the Copley News Service. The syndicated columnist Jay Miller from Santa Fe appears frequently with his "Inside the Capitol" column about New Mexico politics.
Newspaper staffers occasionally write signed opinion pieces, and while these are not official positions they are featured prominently on the Opinion page. For example, in 2007 there was a contentious bill before the State Legislature to prohibit smoking in most indoor public places and work places. The paper did not take a position on this, but it published signed opinion pieces against the bill by the Assistant Editor [13] and for the bill by the Publisher. [14]
Alamogordo is the seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 31,384 as of the 2020 census. Alamogordo is widely known for its connection with the 1945 Trinity test, which was the first ever explosion of an atomic bomb.
Tularosa is a village in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It shares its name with the Tularosa Basin, in which the town is located. To the east, Tularosa is flanked by the western edge of the Sacramento Mountains. The population was 2,553 at the 2020 census. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the town, north of the much larger Alamogordo, experienced moderate growth and construction as a bedroom community, especially in the housing industry. Tularosa is noted for its abundance of cottonwood shade trees and its efforts to preserve the adobe-style architecture of its past.
USA Today is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virginia. Its newspaper is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. The paper's dynamic design influenced the style of local, regional, and national newspapers worldwide through its use of concise reports, colorized images, informational graphics, and inclusion of popular culture stories, among other distinct features.
The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the Herald is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and claims to be the most widely-read masthead in the country. The newspaper is published in compact print form from Monday to Saturday as The Sydney Morning Herald and on Sunday as its sister newspaper, The Sun-Herald and digitally as an online site and app, seven days a week. It is considered a newspaper of record for Australia. The print edition of The Sydney Morning Herald is available for purchase from many retail outlets throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, most parts of regional New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland.
The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a museum and planetarium complex in Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States, dedicated to artifacts and displays related to space flight and the Space Age. It includes the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of Space History highlights the role that New Mexico has had in the U. S. space program, and is one of eight museums administered by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The museum has been accredited by American Alliance of Museums since 1993. The museum is also a Smithsonian Affiliate.
The Ithaca Journal is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper published in Ithaca, New York. It is locally edited and printed in Johnson City, New York, and publishes Monday through Saturday. It has been owned by Gannett since 1912.
The Courier Journal, also known as the Louisville Courier Journal, and called The Courier-Journal between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is a daily newspaper published in Louisville, Kentucky and owned by Gannett, which bills it as "Part of the USA Today Network".
The Des Moines Register is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa, United States.
The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Richard Nixon, authorizing the formation of joint operating agreements among competing newspaper operations within the same media market area. It exempted newspapers from certain provisions of antitrust laws. Its drafters argued that this would allow the survival of multiple daily newspapers in a given urban market where circulation was declining. This exemption stemmed from the observation that the alternative is usually for at least one of the newspapers, generally the one published in the evening, to cease operations altogether.
The Birmingham News was the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States in the latter half of the 20th Century and the first quarter of the 21st. The paper was owned by Advance Publications and was a daily newspaper from its founding through September 30, 2012. After that day, the News and its two sister Alabama newspapers, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times, moved to a thrice-weekly print-edition publication schedule.
The Portland Press Herald is a daily newspaper based in South Portland, Maine, with a statewide readership. The Press Herald mainly serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area of Portland.
The Cape Cod Times is a broadsheet daily newspaper serving Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, which encompasses 15 towns on Cape Cod with a year-round population of about 230,000 and a circulation of about 20,000. It is owned by Gannett.
Alamogordo Public Library is the public library serving Alamogordo, New Mexico and Otero County, New Mexico. The library has extensive collections of Spanish-language and German-language books and of materials related to the Western writer Eugene Manlove Rhodes.
Las Cruces Sun-News, founded in 1881, is a daily newspaper published in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The Tularosa Basin Museum of History, formerly the Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum, is a history museum holding a collection of historical photographs, documents, and relics from Otero County, New Mexico. The museum is located in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and is owned and operated by the Tularosa Basin Historical Society.
Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is a general hospital, owned and operated by the non-profit Otero County Hospital Association, that serves the Alamogordo, New Mexico area. It is the first military/civilian shared hospital facility in the United States.
The New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired is a state special education school with a residential campus in Alamogordo, New Mexico and a preschool in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It operates outreach programs throughout the state.
The Public Opinion is a morning newspaper that is published seven days per week. It is located in the Greater Chambersburg area and serves readers in Franklin, Cumberland and Fulton counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Carlsbad Current-Argus is a newspaper in Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States. It has been published since 1889. The newspaper, printed in a broadsheet format, is published daily except Mondays.
The Deming Headlight is a newspaper in Deming, New Mexico, United States. It was founded by J.E. Curren with its first edition published June 25, 1881.
