Staff

Blaine Howerton
Publisher & Owner

Blaine Howerton is an award-winning program creator and producer, and news photojournalist. His mission is to create and communicate compelling stories, and to provide a vehicle for storytelling.

The television bug bit Howerton in high school, where he worked on Rangeview’s (Aurora, Colo.) weekly newscast. He tried to shake that passion while attending Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., pursuing a dream of becoming a forest ranger. It didn’t work. He soon found himself working for a small television news station out of Farmington, New Mexico, as a news stringer covering news in the Four Corners Region. From there, he made his way to Colorado State University to earn a degree in Technical Journalism, leading the Campus Television Program that received accolades.

From there, Howerton worked in the television news industry in Salt Lake City, Utah as a news videographer, and microwave live truck engineer. In 2000, Howerton came home to Denver, Colo., to join the start-up team for KDVR Fox 31. At the time, that station’s first newscast was the most successful launch of a Fox Owned and Operated station in history. It was at KDVR that Howerton created the station’s first Commercial Production Department, and later became the Technical Operations Manager.

Howerton has created original television shows and produced more than 80 live festivals and performances (including New Year’s Eve fireworks along Denver’s 16th Street Mall, and 4th of July with the Symphony in Denver’s Civic Center Park). In fall 2017, Howerton branched out into publishing. He purchased the North Forty News, a beloved local paper that covers Northern Colorado communities. The publication doubled its distribution in the first few months. Soon after, NFN acquired the New Scene Magazine, dedicated to covering music, concerts, and events.

Blaine Howerton is President of the Regional Emmy Awards (Heartland Chapter) and serves on the Governing Board of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He lives in Fort Collins, Colo. with his wife and two sons.

Matt Dierlam
VP Sales & Marketing

Matt Dierlam serves as Director of Sales and Marketing for North Forty News and New SCENE Magazine. Originally from Northern California, Matt has worked for over 25 years with newspapers and magazines in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Nevada. In Anchorage Matt worked for a variety of community newspapers and business publications and helped launch a few new ones. Working mainly in advertising, circulation and marketing-related positions, he greatly enjoys various aspects of the publishing business.

The opportunity to live in Northern Colorado and continue working with a community-based publishing company encouraged Matt to make Fort Collins his new home. Matt shared he is excited to begin exploring the area and to have the opportunity to work with the local business community. Matt still believes in the power and reach of independent, locally-owned community newspapers and that they remain a key component of democracy while supporting locally-owned businesses and nonprofits and encouraging vibrant and cohesive communities.

Debra Davis
Client Relationship Manager

Debra Davis moved to Fort Collins from New York City in 2015 having spent her entire professional career in New York City in the cosmetic and fragrance industries. She was an Executive Director in international marketing at Estee Lauder Companies as well as Lancaster and Coty.

Ms. Davis was also employed at two of the most prestigious boutique public relations firms in New York, Loving & Weintraub and the Susan Magrino Agency.

She is the owner of Debra Davis Public Relations with clients in LA and New York.

Libby James
Reporter

Libby James has been a freelance writer for North Forty News for more than a decade. She especially enjoys getting up into the mountain communities and writing features about people.  She has been a freelancer for Triangle Review, former weekly in Fort Collins, editor for an older version of Fort Collins Magazine and also for Greeley Style Magazine.  She has written two middle grade novels and text for a picture book Muffin Magic. White Shadow is her first venture into adult historical fiction. I guess she must like having homework. When she’s not writing, she makes notecards from used teabags and runs in an incredibly small age group. She has four children and twelve grandchildren. Some of them run and some of them write. None of them are interested in used tea bags.

Gary Raham
Reporter

Award-winning author/illustrator/graphic designer, Gary Raham, has written science columns and designed ads for the North Forty News for over ten years. He’s watched Wellington grow from a town of 1,200—where everyone made U-turns on Cleveland Avenue—to a community of 8,500+ learning to play nice with three traffic lights. Raham helped raise two amazing daughters with his astounding wife, Sharon.

Author of 18 books of both science fact and science fiction and a former biology teacher, Raham loves getting people excited about science and nature. As an illustrator, he also enjoys creating images that tap into people’s sense of wonder.

Raham is a member of the Colorado Authors’ League, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, and Science Fiction Writers of America. He volunteers actively with both the Poudre School District and the City of Fort Collins Master Naturalists’ program, introducing others to the local opportunities to explore nature and science.

Raham’s goal with the North Forty News is to create eye-catching ads for local businesses and to translate what’s happening in the world of science with accuracy—and just a dash of humor.