One of the most common questions I am asked as editor of the Questa del Rio News is why we don’t cover a variety of happenings in town, from crimes, criminal cases and outcomes, or immediately breaking news.

The truth? We don’t have the resources.

Our staff includes three people. We are responsible for producing 32 pages of news every single month and in addition, we have worked to build up more timely and relevant stories on social media to the greatest extent possible.

In a regular newsroom or even a small newsroom, you would have at the very least, five people available to cover various beats and provide context, background, and vision.

Our staff of three all work full-time jobs, so our work with the Questa del Rio News is our part-time job. What we do cover and what we are able to allocate our resources to, we do. And we do it to the absolute best of our ability. What we don’t, we simply can’t.

Just because we cannot cover every single thing we’re interested in covering, there are ways you, our community, can help us increase our coverage.

• Send in your events! Don’t assume we saw your social media post, flyer, or event. The best way to ensure we know about whatever it is you’re doing is by contacting us directly. News tips can go to editor@questanews.com.
• Send in your news tips! Same as the previous point, don’t assume we see your post or issue. More often than not, the algorithm shakes things up and we don’t see your post for several days. If you have a story you want us to cover, reach out by emailing editor@questanews.com.
• Take photos and send them in! Just because we didn’t have staff to attend a given event or happening doesn’t mean we can’t cover it. We just need visuals such as photos to include in our coverage. You can send your photos along with event descriptions to editor@questanews.com
• Subscribe/donate to our paper: while residents in northern Taos County get the issue free in the main, stemming from a grant with the Questa Economic Development Council, those funds cover a portion of the overhead we carry. Subscribing or donating will help us establish a long-term future so we’re able to continue to serve the Questa community.
• Share our stories: The more you’re able to share our story links on social media, the more impressions we get and the higher likelihood that we’ll be able to sell ads on social media. Advertising dollars help us with our overhead, on a month-to-month basis.

All of these things will help us maintain our current staffing levels and potentially increase the number of staff we have onboard, which means more, comprehensive and accurate coverage of things happening which matter to you.

Thank you for the support you give to the Questa del Rio News newspaper. We are a small shop, working to serve the community we love because we believe your voice and your representation is important. We, in turn, appreciate your support.