Newspaper in Marfa, Texas, opens a cafe and bar to help cover its operating costs and engage with its audience

The Sentinel café and The Big Bend Sentinel weekly operate out of the same building. (NYT photo by Jessica Lutz)

The Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas, is nearly a century old, but its new owners aren't shy about innovation: to grow closer to locals and help the paper make more money, they moved operations to a new building and opened up a café, The Sentinel, that has become a major local watering hole in the town of about 2,000, Sasha von Oldershausen reports for The New York Times.

New York transplants Maisie Crow and Max Kabat bought the paper last year after being approached by Robert and Rosario Halpern, who had published the paper for 25 years. The paper was sustaining itself on ad sales and subscriptions, but just barely. The new owners "hoped to bring locals closer, physically, to the institution covering their hometown," von Oldershausen reports. So they bought an older building, renovated it, and turned it into a café/bar with a small newspaper office attached in the back. They rent the kitchen space to local cooks, rent the space out for events, and otherwise make their money selling drinks.

Marfa, in Presidio County, Texas
(Wikipedia ma

The newspaper and the café exist in a weird legal and ethical space: on paper, the newspaper and the café are legally separate entities, even though they're in the same building. That's because in Texas, any business that serves alcohol is subject to warrantless search from law enforcement, and the owners didn't want to put the newspaper at risk. And though the café hosts public events, they recently turned down a political candidate's request to rent the space because they worried it might be seen as an endorsement, von Oldershausen reports.

The Sentinel's two full-time reporters sometimes work out of the café, which functions as a local watering hole. Managing editor Abbie Perrault told von Oldershausen: "It’s a great way to keep my finger on the pulse and get new leads and find stories."

Kabat and Crow have made changes to the paper too. They've expanded the Sentinel's digital platform, driving a 7 percent bump in online traffic, and increased its photographic coverage. "At the newspaper’s sister publication, The International, which the couple also owns and which serves the largely Spanish-speaking neighboring border town of Presidio, every article is now translated into Spanish. They added a crossword puzzle and Sudoku to both papers, too," von Oldershausen reports. "The newspapers still sell ads, which account for the majority of revenue. But with additional income from private events and day-to-day drink sales, the publishers have been able to keep yearly subscription costs steady: $50 for area residents and $60 for anyone outside."