Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor
Erik Wemple’s story broke Monday on the New York Times website. The headline said, “Here’s a Man-Bites-Dog Story: A Newspaper That’s Doing Well.”
We thought that might be all there was to it. We had no idea if our story would appear in the print edition.
But Tuesday morning I did check The Times front page — and there was The Chronicle feature started at the bottom of page one.
I immediately went out looking to buy a bunch of papers (at $4 a pop). Sandy and Zander went seeking too.
To be honest, initially I didn’t even open the paper to look at page A18 where the story jumped to.
Only when Sandy alerted me did I realize The New York Times had accorded us a full page inside, complete with a photo that took the top third of the page showing me tossing newspaper bundles on to Lynn VanTassell’s truck. There was a great photo of Zander at his desk too.
Those were photos that had not appeared in the online version that they posted Monday. But then again the online version includes great video — of The Chronicle coming off the press in Elizabethtown and of me delivering to our racks and vending box. The Times had sent the very personable photographer/videographer An Rong Xu to do the shoot. Turns out he’s good!
All pretty exciting, I don’t mind saying, although it was our friends’ and readers’ exuberant reaction arriving hour by hour especially Tuesday that brought home the enormity of what just happened.
A Glens Falls High School teacher of mine got through to my voicemail. “Mr. Mark Frost, this is Mr. Bruce Jordan, who is beaming with pride in Schenectady, New York, looking at your picture on page A18 of the New York Times with a story about you on page one. I always knew you had a brilliant bright future and there you are changing the world bit by bit, day by day. Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations. How fabulous. Ta-ta.” (Bruce is famous in his own right for producing and co-owning perennial Off-Broadway favorite comedy-mystery Shear Madness.)
It’s fun to see who finds out when and chimes in.
It wasn’t a surprise to us that The Times was doing a story. Reporter Erik Wemple had been working on it for weeks. Actually it goes back more than a year. He first approached us in 2025 when he was covering media for The Washington Post. His family vacations at a small local lake. Erik has weekly roots, saw our paper, started reading it. Then he and The Post parted ways, I knew he’d gone to The Times but didn’t hear from him again until June of this year. He still wanted to do the story but had to toss all his old notes and start from scratch. He asked if he could go back out delivering papers with me. I think that’s what hooked him last year and again now. He saw for himself the eager readers, the relationships, the give and take.
We didn’t know what Erik would write or who else he’d be reaching out to for comment, although some people he approached alerted us a NY Times reporter was asking about us. Erik requested access to our 46-year archive, and he spent days poring through it.
As newspaper people ourselves, we knew the story was beyond our control. There are aspects we wish he’d included more of particularly Cathy DeDe’s crucial role.
But we’re happy campers overall. Page 1, NY Times!
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