Another player for delivering news
Book signings scheduled for Chapman Museum and McKernon Gallery
By Ken Tingley
After 22 years in the classroom, Steve Thurston got in the game.
Thurston graduated from Queensbury High in 1984 and like so many local graduates he left for college and a career. Eventually, he landed a teaching gig in Washington, D.C..
He spent 22 years at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD where he was a writing and journalism professor while also freelancing for various media outlets. Along the way he also started a nonprofit news website while still teaching. He loved it, but the workload nearly killed him.
Once their kids graduated high school, there was nothing keeping Steve and his wife in Arlington, Va., so they considered other possibilities closer to family and friends. He set his sights on covering the news. His wife was offered a job in Denver, but when a better job came along teaching at Empire State College, their future was sealed.
“We were ready for a change,” Thurston said.
Thurston, following up on his previous experience with a nonprofit news website, started the Foothills Business Daily in 2020 from his home in Saratoga Springs. It could be the future of community news and something you should pay attention to.
“Newspapers are going to go away,” Thurston said assuredly and it is hard to argue with him considering the constant stream of layoffs at community newspapers.
Thurston has a very specific vision for his news outlet.
“Our motto is `News that knows your are busy.’ That gets to the heart of it,” Thurston said. “You should be able to get through a story in a minute or two.”
The Foothills Business Daily is sticking to the economic centers of the region like Saratoga Springs, Queensbury, Glens Falls and Lake George. He can’t cover everything, but he is showing content that is not appearing anywhere else. He leave the police blotter, opinions, sports and features to others, but he is already competing for important news stories.
“You have to really love news,” Thurston said. “Daily newspapers have been struggling. I’ve been studying journalism for years. They keep shooting themselves in the foot.”
It was on the Foothills Business Daily where I learned about the Queensbury Town Board’s decision to raise taxes 56 percent. That opened my eyes and I think it has opened the eyes of others as well.
The Post-Star is currently struggling with just two general assignment reporters. Thurston has himself and three part-timers writing stories. When he first got here, he applied to The Post-Star for a job, but he never heard back. He is now its competition.
He recently joined the substack.com platform and is charging $36 for a yearly subscription while promising to publish news five days a week. Thurston said he hopes to show a small profit on his venture by the end of 2023.
“I really like the work, but like any startup, it is slow going with the money,” Thurston said. “People know who I am now and are happy to see me at meetings. They seem happy to get any kind of coverage. It seems like everything is in place now.”
Thurston, like any small businessperson, wears a lot of hats. He is officially Publisher/Editor of the Foothills Business Daily while also acting as its prime advertising salesperson.
“I think people want short, focused stories instead of 1,500 or 3,000-word stories,” Thurston said. “I think that long-form journalism has moved to podcast. People don’t want to read long-form, but they will sit in their car and listen to 12 hours of a podcast series.”
Thurston is guarding against burnout by publishing just 48 weeks a year so he has four weeks to recharge his batteries.
The good news for consumers is that his journalism is needed to supplement reduced coverage from other print products. You won’t get Dear Abby, comics, your horoscope, crime briefs or much event coverage, but you will get more news and that will only grow in the future.
And that’s what we all need.
Book signing
Thanks to all of you who have supported me by buying my new book “The Last American Newspaper.”
If you finished reading it, I’d love to know what you think. It would be appreciated if you could leave a review on Amazon.com. Just search my name, then go to the bottom of the page where is says “leave a review.” It does not have to be long.
If you would like your book signed, I have two book signings scheduled for Saturday.
As part of the Chapman Museum’s holiday open house (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and free admission), I will be signing from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
I will also be signing at McKernon Gallery in Hudson Falls from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Hope to see you at one of the events.
Greenwich event
Looking forward to speaking to the Greenwich Lions Club after their annual holiday dinner on Thursday evening. WAMC host Joe Donahue and I will be discussing newspapers, journalism and my two books.
Dark time at breakfast
Like many people reading the morning newspaper, the obituaries are a must read. After seeing what obituary for a 99-year-old, my companion commented, “What, they couldn’t make it to 100?”
“What, they couldn’t make it to 100?”
Perhaps they had seen enough ! ; - }}
I wish him luck, but is he competing with the Post Star?