The weekly Silver City Independent The
Silver City Daily Press traces its origins to the 1896 establishment of the
Silver City Independent, a
weekly newspaper originally published on Tuesdays in
Silver City, New Mexico. The
Independent was founded and edited by George Norton, a pioneer merchant in the area, and published its first issue on June 30, 1896, as a "non-partisan, independent, progressive local newspaper." However, despite the name, even at its beginning the newspaper wasn't nonpartisan, at least not in the modern sense of the word. In a position statement published in the first issue of the
Independent, Norton spelled out what the name of the newspaper was intended to signify: "Now where this paper will differ from the average democratic paper will be in this particular — while we are willing to laud its virtues, we shall hold it as our right and duty to criticize its follies. This will be regarded as bad party politics by dyed-in-the-wool democrats, and for this reason we have christened this paper the INDEPENDENT in order that our expressions may not be construed to be those of a strict party organ." The original incarnation of the
Silver City Independent was, perhaps unsurprisingly given its location, dedicated to the cause of
Free silver, and carried the slogan "Free and Unlimited Coinage 16 to 1." on its Page 2 masthead throughout its first two years of publication. At that time, the Ely family also owned
Gallup Independent and the
Yuma Arizona Sentinel newspapers. In 1995, the paper's publisher William F. Ely died. In 1999, the
Silver City Daily Press took first place in the column writing category at the annual New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors awards. The newspaper also took second place in both editorials and sports photo categories. They also received awards for their editorials, feature photos, and features columns in 2000. Five months later, the state failed to pay what was owed to the newspaper and its editor and publisher Tina Ely, a single mother, took out a
second mortgage on her home to meet the newspaper's payroll due to the unpaid bill from the Secretary of State's Office. In April 2007, the
Silver City Daily Press received the
Mark Twain Award from the New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors (NMAPME). First awarded by NMAPME in 1996, the
Silver City Daily Press receive the Mark Twain Award in 2007 for their outstanding member cooperation throughout the year 2006. The decision to hire an outside printing house was based on the cost of upgrading the press equipment at the
Silver City Daily Press to digital technology. Joseph "Joby" Aguirre, one of the pressman laid off from the
Silver City Daily Press in 2008 when the newspaper discontinued its local printing operation, went on to be named 2010 Police Officer of the Year by
Silver City Police. In 2013, the
Silver City Daily Press became one of 11 member newspapers of the Community News Exchange. In addition to receiving the ability to publish content in an average of 67,000 newspapers per publication day, the
Silver City Daily Press obtained publishing rights access through the exchange to small-town community news from member newspapers around New Mexico. After reading the announcement in the paper, former Daily Press General Manager Nickolas Seibel assembled a group of local investors to back him in a purchase of some of the newspaper's assets, including the name, website, archives and a few pieces of equipment. The potential deal was announced in what was to be the newspaper's final issue on Monday, April 28, and the newspaper was first published under the ownership of Seibel's Silver City Independent Publishing Company, LLC, on Tuesday, April 29 — without missing a day of publication. ==See also==