This week, New Mexico in Focus takes a deep look at the state’s evolving journalism ecosystem. Executive Producer Jeff Proctor opens the show with a conversation you’ll only see on NMPBS — a one-on-one interview with the new executive editor at the Albuquerque Journal, Patrick Ethridge. Jeff asks about his career in journalism to this point and how that will shape his philosophy at the top of what has long been considered New Mexico’s “paper of record.”
A panel of local journalists chats with NMiF Host Gene Grant about the successes, shortcomings and challenges facing small-town news publications. One of the biggest factors in that equation is ownership, something this panel is uniquely qualified to discuss. Each of our three panelists represents a distinct business model prevalent today: locally-owned papers, corporate-ownership and nonprofit news.
In his second one-on-one interview of the show, Proctor talks with Albuquerque City Council President Pat Davis, who also now owns four newspapers in the state. As the leader behind The Paper., the Edgewood Independent, the Sandoval Signpost and the Corrales Comment, Proctor asks Davis about media consolidation and the role of journalism more broadly in New Mexico.
Grant closes out the show with a final panel segment featuring three newsroom leaders with a hand in shaping coverage around the state. The group also discusses ownership’s influence on staffing and coverage. Regardless, resources in the industry are much more limited than they were even just a decade ago. Grant asks if news organizations can still properly serve their audiences with so much less.
NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, July 7 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 9 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.
NMiF Segments
One-on-One with the Albuquerque Journal’s New Executive Editor
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guest
Patrick Ethridge, vice president, executive editor, The Albuquerque Journal
The Changing Landscape of Print Media & Serving New Mexico’s Smaller News Markets
Correspondent
Gene Grant
Guests
Shaun Griswold, editor, Source New Mexico
Algernon D’Ammassa, editor, The Deming Headlight
Jessica Onsurez, news director, Gannett
Pat Davis: Politician and Newspaper Magnate
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guest
Pat Davis, Albuquerque City Council President, Newspaper Owner
Newsroom Leaders Explain Staffing & Coverage Decisions in 2023
Correspondent
Gene Grant
Guests
Tim Maestas, news director, KOB-TV
Sara Solovitch, editor, Searchlight New Mexico
Megan Kamerick, news director, KUNM Radio
Host
Gene Grant
New Mexico in Focus is the New Mexico PBS prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people that are shaping life in New Mexico and the Southwest. NMiF takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic health, education, and art issues, and explores them in-depth with a critical eye to give them context beyond the "news of the moment."
NMPBS Executive Producer, Public Affairs, is Jeff Proctor. New Mexico in Focus Senior Producer for Public Affairs is Lou DiVizio. “Our Land” Senior Producer is Laura Paskus. The producer of New Mexico in Focus is Antonio Sanchez and Co-producer is Kathy Wimmer.
Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by the McCune Charitable Foundation and Viewers Like You.
Funding for the Your New Mexico Government Project comes from the Thornburg Foundation and New Mexico Local News Fund.
Funding for Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present & Future, is provided in part by the Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV.