The new headquarters of the Los Alamos Daily Post at 1247 Central Ave., in downtown Los Alamos. Los Alamos MainStreet provided a curb appeal matching grant for the purchase of the new red awning. Courtesy photo

Staff Report

The Los Alamos Daily Post is pleased to announce the launch of its first subsidiary – The Jemez Daily Post. Click on the button at right to access The Jemez Daily Post.

Ryszard Wasilewski and Susan Burritt of Jemez Springs are publishing The Jemez Daily Post, which covers the communities in the Jemez Mountains and surrounding areas. The online paper is published seven days a week.

“The Jemez is an important community for us because a good number of folks who work at LANL, the County and local businesess live in the Jemez Mountains,” said Carol A. Clark, founder the Los Alamos Daily Post. “Ryszard and Susan live in Jemez Springs and have a deep understanding of the community and are an excellent fit with our approach to running a community newspaper. They are dedicated to sharing our mission of providing a strong focus on local news coverage. Susan worked for several years at the Jemez Thunder and she and Ryszard have demonstrated their commitment to growing The Jemez Daily Post and making it an important part of the fabric of the Jemez community.”

Wasilewski has ties to Los Alamos through his wife, Carol Meine, who worked at Mesa Public Library for more than a decade before becoming director of the Jemez Springs Public Library earlier this year. He also is active in the Los Alamos Little Theater.

Ryszard Wasilewski

“I spent my childhood and youth in Poland and the UK,” Wasilewski said. “Back in the early 1970s, I was traveling across the US in a Trailways bus and decided to step off at the Albuquerque bus station, intrigued by the landscape that I was passing through and determined to make a closer inspection. I was enchanted. Years later I find myself living in the Jemez, still enchanted, and now focused on bringing to light the news and views of the wonderful communities I share my life with in this valley. Up until now I have worked as an artist, animator and teacher.

“My wife, my daughter and myself are involved in, and committed to communication through media. Inspired and mentored by the Los Alamos Daily Post, the production of the Jemez Daily Post is a dream come true, and an opportunity to repay the community that has welcomed me.”

Susan Burritt

“From as far back as I can remember, all I ever wanted to do was live in the mountains. That desire was reinforced after three formative teen years spent in New Jersey when my father was transferred there,” Burritt said. “The people there were very nice. Everything else horrified me. I swore never to leave blue skies and mountains again. In 1979, after spending time in the California countryside and Los Angeles, I returned to New Mexico for good. Compelled to finish my college degree (German and journalism – don’t ask) at UNM, it wasn’t until 1984 that I found my way home to the Jemez Mountains. I say home because my father told me he had me in the Jemez River before I could walk (again – don’t ask), and I have old photos of him and my mother less than a mile from where I now live.

“So many of us who have moved here have similar stories. So many of those who have lived here for generations have also struggled to stay in this, their rural home. We all love it here, or we wouldn’t expend the kind of effort it takes to stay here. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to gather and share information about this community. I hope the information I share will educate, amuse or help. On a lucky day, I may get to do all three.”

Along with its new subsidiary, other changes at the Los Alamos Daily Post include a move last month into a spacious new headquarters at 1247 Central Ave., across from the Municipal Building in downtown Los Alamos. 

Carol A. Clark

“We first launched the paper Feb. 7, 2012 from a laptop in my home in White Rock,” Clark recalled. “Soon after we moved into a space at the Hive on N.M. 4 and had a team of helpers including webmaster Greg Kendall and his wife Karen who both helped in many ways. In October of 2012 we moved into a small office without windows in the Small Business Center in Central Park Square, followed a few months later by a move into a slightly larger space down the hall that had small windows.”

Bonnie J. Gordon 

Longtime Los Alamos resident Bonnie J. Gordon is a writer and graphic artist. She has been with the Los Alamos Daily Post from its inception, first as a volunteer covering events and creating ads until leaving her marketing job at UNM-LA in early 2013 to join the newspaper fulltime as lifestyles editor.

Gordon explained her interest in covering the lifestyles beat saying, “I’m more than excited to be working for the Los Alamos Daily Post where I get to cover the things I truly enjoy and care about like music, theatre, literature, art, education, spirituality and food. Plus, I get to write features about amazing people.”

Thanks to continued community support, the Los Alamos Daily Post is growing every day and is pleased to announce two important additions to the news team, Craig Mortensen is our new copy editor and Chris Clark is our social media editor. Both are longtime Los Alamos residents and Mortensen is a recent graduate of the Santa Fe School of Art and Design.

Craig N. Mortensen

Milestones

The Los Alamos Daily Post was selected Small Business of the Year in 2013 by the Los Alamos Commerce & Development Corporation. Former Executive Director Kevin Holsapple said at the time, “We congratulate and recognize Carol Clark and the Los Alamos Daily Post as both a sound business start-up, a growing employer, and a rapid success in becoming among the most trusted sources of news in our community and beyond.”

The day the award was announced, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich stopped by the Los Alamos Daily Post to congratulate the news team and say, “Washington is all abuzz about the Los Alamos Daily Post and I want to personally congratulate you for receiving the 2013 Small Business of the Year award.”

Chris Clark

Another recognition occurred not long after the newspaper began operations. Los Alamos County conducted an independent survey on where residents get their news. The results of that survey identified the Los Alamos Daily Post as the community’s number one online news source.

Readership of the Los Alamos Daily Post continues to grow. Google analytics shows the paper received more than 60,000 unique visitors in July, nearly 500,000 pageviews and is read in 129 countries across the globe. Its Facebook page is close to surpassing 4,000 likes.

Gratitude

We want to thank our community members for helping to make this happen. So many residents contribute to the success of the paper through sharing their stories, columns, photos and news tips. Special thanks go to Kirsten Laskey who has been a part of the team since inception, covering events and writing columns. Also with us since the beginning are Elena Yang who writes a weekly business column and Sue York who writes a weekly food column. And we thank photographers Salvador Zapien and Leland Lehman for their important contributions to the paper. 

“The Los Alamos Daily Post news team also would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the residents and business owners of Los Alamos County and surrounding areas for their tremendous support,” Clark said. “Our appreciation goes out to the many loyal readers who follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We extend special appreciation to the many faithful advertisers who make it possible for our news team to bring the news of Los Alamos to the people of Los Alamos and beyond. Our promise to the community is that we will continue to cover local news that is important to you – our neighbors, friends and colleagues.”