NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
MCPHERSON, Kan. — CherryRoad Media has acquired the McPherson News Ledger and will integrate this publication into the historic McPherson Sentinel.
"The paper has been around there so long," said Editor Jeff Gulley. "It's in an area where there's not a whole lot else that can cover it. It's a great, great town. Great sports in the schools and the colleges. There's just a lot going for McPherson."
The McPherson Sentinel has been serving McPherson County since 1887, and this change will help it remain vibrant and viable for the long term. If you subscribe to the News Ledger today, that subscription will transfer to The Sentinel, and you will begin receiving that paper next week. It will be a once a week publication on Wednesdays starting Feb. 8.
"We hired our sports reporter, Joel Muhs, who is just fantastic," Gulley said. "He is such a great kid and really loves the sports, loves what he's doing and he's from McPherson. We hired Brenna Eller who had just graduated from the University of Kansas. She grew up in Little River. That's her area. She moved back to the area after living in Lawrence. She's been our news reporter. Just for the last six months, the quality of news and the coverage we've been doing is better than ever since I've been here. We added one more reporter who has been covering McPherson, lives in McPherson, knows the area. It's got the potential from a Cherry Road perspective to be one of our most well-staffed. It's a good thing."
This change will not represent a reduction in the amount of local news and information the paper provides. Cherry Road is merely reducing the number of times to distribute a print product. They plan to refocus some of our efforts onto the digital space and have daily posts as part of the digital subscription connected with each print subscription to the Sentinel.
“While newspapers across the country struggle to thrive and survive, we know this merger means McPherson will continue to have a strong, local media outlet,” Publisher and CEO Jeremy Gulban said. “We are committed to McPherson, to covering your local community. Combining the two newsrooms, and the two sets of subscribers, means everyone gets more local news, more local information, more local advertising. This is good for everyone.”
CherryRoad Media owns and operates over 70+ newspapers in 15 states throughout the country. Publisher and CEO Jeremy Gulban believes this merger of the two McPherson papers will result in a positive change for the subscribers of both McPherson papers.
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