I hope you and yours are having a happy holiday season. I’m relishing being settled with family and friends. The past few months have been a whirlwind, visiting donors, hanging out with readers, spending some quality time with High Country News staffers in Paonia, Colorado, and making a special side trip to Laramie, Wyoming.
When we sold our building at the end of last year and leased a cozy corner of it instead, it meant we had to sift through and clean up decades’ worth of papers, artifacts and memories. In January, I put the question directly to you in Dear Friends: What should we do with HCN’s archives? I had a few ideas about museums or educational institutions that might be willing to house more than 50 years of Western history, but no solid leads.
I say “one day,” because the boxes we shipped north apparently had some, er, creepy crawlies in them, which would come as no surprise to anyone who ever poked their head into the old storage annex. The boxes were still undergoing a freezing and bug-checking process when I visited.
Once integrated into the center’s collections, HCN’s papers will be available to researchers from across the globe, along with the papers of our founder, Tom Bell, and a vast trove of other information. Those who can’t make the trek to Laramie can hop on a video call with research assistants who will help them rifle through boxes from afar.
In other news, the HCN Board of Directors approved our budget for fiscal year 2023/2024. As someone who worked at HCN during its scrappier days, $4.6 million in planned spending is a bit mind-boggling, but even by nonprofit news standards, we’re still relatively small. Grist, founded by HCN alum Chip Giller, has a budget about twice the size of ours, as does The Marshall Project, a national news outlet covering the criminal justice system.
We’re lucky, though, because we have you, our stalwart community of readers, who provide roughly three-fourths of our annual operating revenue via your subscription dues and donations. And we put that money to good use: Roughly 60% of our revenue goes to staff salaries, benefits and employment taxes. Add contract and freelance editors and writers, and 75% of HCN’s budget goes directly to the people who create this publication and get it delivered to your doorsteps and inboxes.
High Country News still has room to grow. Our work over the next two years is focused on expanding the constellation of smart, thoughtful people who read and support this publication. It’s not just about sustaining HCN and continuing this amazing 53-year legacy; it’s about drawing more people into the critical conversation about what the West is — and should be.
We couldn’t do any of this without you, of course. So, thank you! I feel lucky to be here, caretaking an institution that is near and dear to my heart, and one that has played such an important role in shaping this region we all love.
Sending best wishes from the whole HCN family.
We welcome reader letters. Greg Hanscom is the executive director & publisher of High Country News. Email us at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Home for the holidays.
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