A 140-year-old rural daily in Colorado is trying to stage a comeback from a recent self-censorship scandal, Jack Healy reports for The New York Times. The Aspen Times made headlines across the state in early summer after its new outsider owners withheld two opinion pieces they worried might upset a billionaire Russian developer who was suing the paper for defamation. Locals were outraged and most of the paper's staff—including the new editor—quit. Ogden Newspapers, a family-run company out of West Virginia, bought the Times and several other resort-town newspapers in December.
"Officials in Pitkin County, upset at the turmoil, recently voted to designate Aspen’s younger, locally owned newspaper, The Aspen Daily News, as the official 'paper of record' that publishes all of the county’s legal notices," Healy reports. "A handful of other advertisers have pulled back."
But last week the paper "published a column by its latest editor, who said he hoped to rebuild the staff and 'rise from the ashes,'" Healy reports. Two days later the paper ran "a long-delayed story that delved into the finances of the developer who had sued the paper. The article, based on public records and court documents, raised questions about the developer’s statements that he had stopped doing business in Russia in 2014." Still, with the paper down to one reporter and public trust at low tide, it's unclear whether the Times will be able to recover.
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