As the journalism landscape morphs into forms undreamed of in the 1950s, media shapers continue to adapt. Although sheltered by its location from some of the world’s trends and ills, Southwest Colorado and Ballantine Communications Inc. are not immune to challenges presented to the modern-day Fourth Estate.
Providing local news continues to be an imperative, agree current members of the BCI board, which oversees The Durango Herald. Even if it’s not clear what formats community-driven journalism will take in the future, these formats, they vow, will be found.
Morley and Arthur Ballantine purchased The Durango Herald in 1952 at a time when the printed newspaper was the widely read, undisputed best source of daily news. Technology may have changed delivery mechanisms, but not the company’s core goals.
Chris Ballantine, 36, says the values that his grandparents established at the Herald remain – such as being a community sounding board and a proponent of free speech open to all voices. He has been a BCI board member since 2012.
“Our current attempt is to revitalize those values that we’ve always cherished,” says Ballantine, the son of Richard Ballantine, chairman of the BCI board, “and then really use that to see how we can move forward.”
Chris Ballantine is part of a “next generation” that has taken shape to infuse the BCI board with energy and a look toward a realistic future.
Please join us
Ballantine Communications is celebrating 70 years of ownership. Please join us for an informal open house at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, or 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19, at The Durango Herald office, 1275 Main Ave.
Both Richard, 76, and his sister Elizabeth, 74, board treasurer, continue as strong voices on the board. They acknowledge that this next generation holds the key to the future. Three grandchildren of Morley and Arthur, who died in 2009 and 1975, respectively, serve on the BCI board. Chris Ballantine, a Durango native, is currently a resident naturopath in Billings, Montana. He performed multiple jobs at the Herald during his youth and early adult years.
Morley Healy, 40, is chief strategy officer for a Wichita, Kansas-based health care network. Healy, the daughter of Helen Ballantine and Ed Healy, made nearly annual trips to Southwest Colorado from Kansas while growing up. She spent a summer in the early 2000s working at the Herald, and during that time witnessed what local news means to a small community.
“I think that’s something as a board we’re really committed to,” Morley Healy said, “is how do we continue to provide access to that information in a way that resonates with the community.”
It was more than just the name that bonded her to her grandmother. She saw Morley Ballantine’s dedication to journalism, to the city of Durango, and to her family and its role in the community. Morley Healy sees the two-way relationship between BCI and the community. Journalism needs a community’s support to be local and sustainable, and the board wants to provide that valuable information channel to earn the community’s support. She often wonders what her grandmother would do.
“What lever would she pull, or what avenue would she try, to garner support and to make sure that she continued to reinforce the values that local journalism brings to a community to continue to thrive and be informed?”
Sarah Leavitt, Elizabeth’s daughter, is a New York City-based marketing director. Leavitt, 34, grew up in the Washington, D.C., area, but also was a frequent visitor to Southwest Colorado. She learned to ski through lessons at Purgatory Resort. She became a BCI board member in 2021 for multiple reasons, one being a growing understanding of the family tradition established by her grandparents.
“The whole narrative and history has inspired me in a way that I hadn’t really fully appreciated when I was younger,” she said.
With a master’s in business administration, she can add value to the board in the areas of business strategy and growth. Plus, Durango is one of her favorite places on the planet, and she looks forward to visits for quarterly board meetings and more.
“Getting a foot in the door and being able to be part of the community there now is something I find really exciting,” she says.
As of May 2021, David Cook, 43, is one of three nonfamily members on the eight-member BCI board. (The others are Wayne Roth and Janice Burnham.) Cook, publisher of the Aspen Daily News since 2004 and owner since 2017, brings a regional perspective to the board, and a passion for the important role of news media in a country struggling to agree on facts.
Cook is focused on independent, hyperlocal media, specifically in the Central Rockies. Resort towns from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Steamboat Springs, to Park City, Utah, to Durango face a similar set of issues: a housing crisis, deteriorating environment, fire mitigation and water rights, to name a few. He joined the BCI board because the Ballantines’ values align with his.
Journalists need to be in a position to “tell enterprising stories that will hold power to account and give a voice to the Central Rockies,” Cook says.
He doesn’t buy into any suggestion that local media has no future. The 1999 Fort Lewis College graduate is confident and passionate in such a future, because it is necessary.
“I’ll tell you without hesitation that I believe the Fourth Estate is what is going to pull this country out of this funk we’re in right now,” Cook says. “True journalists and beat reporting, hyperlocal news media markets, are the answer to saving our country. I’m not trying to be hyperbolic on this.”
Chris Ballantine emphasizes that all voices in the spectrum of opinions must be heard, and wants the Herald to provide this conduit.
“I’m really hoping we can be as inclusive as possible as we step into the next chapter,” he says. “I want people to feel they belong, without feeling marginalized.”
Although the focus of the 70th anniversary of Ballantine ownership is on the family involvement, board members underlined the crucial role of employees, many of whom have toiled for BCI for decades. These employees are deeply appreciated.
Says Morley Healy, “It’s important to honor and recognize them as well.”
Every era offers challenges, a fact of which the current board needs no reminder.
Says Chris Ballantine, “I feel on the board and family side there’s a new surge of optimism and creativity and a sense of looking toward the future that seems bright. That’s refreshing to be a part of.”
