First issue set lasting editorial voice

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Put government officials under a glaring spotlight. Tell locals where the party is. And keep a wary eye on news of the outside world.

Those instructions — that editorial DNA — is evident in the first three stories of the inaugural issue of the Aspen Daily News on July 1, 1978.

The road to relevancy

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

How the town got its news fix

You could say the Aspen Daily News lasted because it happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Aspen’s muckraker looks back

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

“Every institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Editor’s note: Daily News celebrates milestone

by Troy Hooper, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
It’s hard to believe, but the Aspen Daily News turned 30 this month.

Founders Dave Danforth, Lee Duncan and Mark Shaw began this paper on July 1, 1978, on what they say was a lark. Stringing together stories only a few sentences long or even shorter, they slapped their work on a double-sided single piece of paper and scrambled around town delivering what was at the time the town’s only daily “newspaper.”

Who needs advertising?

by Christine Benedetti, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

It’s like the separation of church and state — advertising and editorial departments at newspapers do not work together. But it’s a symbiotic relationship. Revenue comes from ads (especially at this paper, which is free and has no paid subscriptions). And without ads, there’s no newspaper. So when a paying advertiser gets a little pissed off about something, unfavorable coming to light about them in the pages of the Aspen Daily News, they sometimes pull their ads.

Throughout three decades the Daily News has been around, a fair share of advertisers have threatened to pull their accounts, sometimes indefinitely. Most come around, and it’s water under the bridge. But a few have stuck to their guns. Here’s a selection of the highlights:

Time capsule: 1978

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Time capsule: 1978

Price of gas: 63 cents per gallon

THE SCORE — Profile: Eugene Levinson, bass artist/faculty member

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Eugene Levinson, principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, enjoys a worldwide career as soloist and teacher. Born in Kiev, he graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory with a DMA and became its youngest faculty member.

He has been co-chair of the bass faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1979, and many of his students are members of the world’s prestigious orchestras.

Theories on why the Daily News is still here

by Dave Danforth
With our 30th anniversary approaching, no one ever popped the question: “Why are we still here?” Here are some possibilities:
1. We don’t know. We’re too close to the action, too distracted by the reality of having another paper to put out the next day.

Laugh, Obama, laugh

by Kathleen Parker, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Oh, for a good riposte.

Barack Obama’s levity-free reaction to the now-famous New Yorker cartoon leaves one reluctantly wondering: Is he humor-challenged? Perchance, does he take himself too seriously for a nation of wits and wags?

Hide Buttermilk junk

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

Why is the Buttermilk parking lot used for a storage facility for an assortment of construction equipment, piles of construction material and the like?

Doing the B’game math

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, it’s time to play the “Aspen/Burlingame Math Show.” Welcome to all our contestants (sometimes called constituents).