North Forty News Expands to Weekly by Summer

In May 2017 Fort Collins Journalist Blaine Howerton read an article on the front page of North Forty News by its current owner that this was the last issue as he planned to shut it down.“I read that article and felt something had to be done or yet another locally-owned newspaper was going under,” said Howerton. That very day Howerton set out on a mission to save this 25-year old Northern Larimer County once-rural newspaper (started in 1993 in the small community of Waverly).

Under Howerton’s leadership and grueling work around the clock, North Forty News began to grow, doubling its subscribers in its optional subscription program, tripling its circulation, and expanding its distribution points while also improving its coverage and revamping its digital footprint with a brand-new free community-news website.

Less than one year later in January of 2018, North Forty News announced its purchase of SCENE Magazine. “The expansion of North Forty News through acquisition of SCENE helped us gain even more momentum. With combined operations, we created a concept where we could deliver hyper-local community news throughout Northern Colorado in North Forty News alongside a well-established monthly arts, entertainment and lifestyle publication,” said Howerton.

By February of 2018, North Forty News began distributing to a much larger area expanding its reach to 1,000 distribution points in the highest population centers as well as the more rural areas throughout Northern Colorado.

By January 2019, North Forty News announced yet another aspect of its expansion plan — the release of a quarterly series of magazines called the Northern Colorado Magazine.

Demonstrated community support for North Forty News’ solution-driven journalistic content, combined with its new initiatives, has created enough momentum for the announcement of the newspaper’s expansion to weekly publication by July 2019.

“Words can’t express how much I appreciate the support of our community. We give to Northern Colorado’s communities every day. They are giving right back through their support by subscribing and through their advertising dollars. Our expansion will make us Northern Colorado’s only weekly publication circulating to all significantly-sized areas of Northern Colorado. I can’t wait until this summer when we continue to roll out our new platform,” said Howerton.

North Forty News has begun new expansion with mid-month editions in May and June and an aggressive plan to increase monthly page count and circulation by more than 4 times.

Subscriptions can be purchased on the North Forty News website at https://northfortynews.com/subscribe for less than $3 per issue. Digital subscriptions are part of the service and include a Daily Digest email and a digital replica of each North Forty News edition. A $1 minimum (or any other amount) digital-only option can be purchased via every page of https://northfortynews.com .

At North Forty News, our core mission is to give back to our extended community throughout Northern Colorado through our focused efforts to comprehensively represent it through strategic coverage, donations, special events, and much more.

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