This is genius. I don’t like Texas, and this would entice even me to to visit Marfa. Maybe.
Yes, it is a bit hipster and all that. But still truly groovy.
Got a good chuckle at, “We had to sage the whole place.”
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@Passion for Peaches How about sage-ing the entire state? It couldn't hurt, and might help.
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@karen, yeah, no kidding!
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@Passion for Peaches I still haven't figured out what that word means (besides a color and an herb).
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Texas Monthly has a fine piece in its current issue on the state of affairs in Marfa. What this NYT piece fails to get at is how fundamentally the Art Mob has changed Marfa over the past couple of decades. It's less a town now and more a theme park for pretentious trust-funders. The roving gliterati of Austin, Brooklyn, etc. may take respite at the Sentinel bar, but make no mistake, gentrification here is as depressing and prevalent as it is in Williamsburg and the east side of Austin. Marfa is an art colony, all right, with the emphasis on colony. When and if the local paper starts to address the implications of that, then you'll have worthwhile journalism to read. But good luck balancing those stories with the whims and wishes of your advertisers.
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I like the fact that cocktails are just next door rather than the bottle of scotch or rye that used to be down in the bottom left-hand drawer of every desk in the newsroom.
Good luck to 'em… They'll need that alcohol aplenty to deal with the ornery cusses who want to argue about things like Marfa and Africa (for gawd's sake!).
-30-
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I think this is a wonderful development. One of the big draws of Marfa is that you can do your own thing. I might work, it might not, but you (not a faceless corporation) are the sole driver of your project.
Yes, Marfa gets attention.. people think it might be paradise, and are sometimes disappointed in the reality. I for one love it. Think big sky, big land, great people, and time to be yourself (without totally leaving society)...
Kudos to everyone, including this couple, who are brave enough to dream, act, and work hard
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Since Marfa is basically a suburb of NYC, judging by the number of interns and arts administrators from Brooklyn and Manhattan working as baristas on the weekend I've run into there, this solution to the local newspaper crises in small towns across the USA is an outlier.
Marfa is not really in Texas, but on an art world circuit that has its own economic basis, so lots of drinkers looking for something to do while passing through fund all manner of frilly activities.
This would never work in Lubbock.
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Stayed in a house next door to this place a couple of months ago on a recharging trip to Marfa. The paper is charming, and the coffee shop/cocktail bar is ridiculously welcoming. Like most everything in Marfa; completely dog friendly. The sweet potato breakfast tacos provided by the locals ladies in the kitchen on site were delicious! I wish them much success.
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Maybe instead of focusing upon trying to save local papers as papers, we should consider the fact that every decent sized city in America has at least one, and often several extremely profitable FCC licensed TV stations, and that the cost of running one local paper that employed actual journalists would in most cases be a small fraction of the profits generated by those stations. Local TV stations get a huge subsidy from their free use of spectrum, and deliver very little to their home communities. How about asking all the stations in a market to pay a "local journalism support fee"? Remember, the taxpayer, not the licensee, owns that spectrum, and it's a "license to print money" that generates very little for the general public.
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@Murray Kenney
Innovative idea! Like most innovative ideas that challenge established norms, almost certainly doomed to a forgotten dustbin, but a good idea nonetheless!
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Interesting little art-influenced town in West Texas. Chianti Museum, Marfa Maid Goat Farm are two places I have visited in Maria. Also, Alpine is only 20 miles away and has Big Bend Museum on the Sul Ross State College campus; another great little college town. McDonald Observatory in nearby Ft. Davis has a Star Party every night. Great examples of thriving small, diverse, and progressive towns in Texas. Well worth a visit
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Marfa is 484 miles from Ft Worth, 599 from Houston, 2000 miles from NYC and 429 from Austin. It's a place for "old hippies" to retire or young hippies to visit. It's cheap, today, dry and beautiful. It's a Taos before Taos became what it is today. It's looking for an Agnus Martin. Good luck with the paper and the bar. My money is on the bar surviving the longest!
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@DHR Marfa is not "cheap," at least not for West Texas. Maybe compared to Dallas or New York City.
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Why is the nytimes so fixated on marfa? The few restaurants in town are open on a rotating schedule as are the art galleries. There is almost nothing to do except go to ft davis. Too many articles on this small remote texas city. By the way Ive visited the place.
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@Susan I have been visiting Marfa for decades. Once a year or two - there is all types of things to do. But I think the best thing to do is just be quiet and reflect. And it has many restaurants that do not rotate on a schedule.
My mother has lived in Marfa for 20+years. It is a wonderful place to visit and to explore. But then some people just don't get it. Sorry you don't.
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@Susan You are right. It is in truth a revolving door. Rather than a lifestyle choice, it is often a fringe contingency for uncompetitive persons. The local NPR radio is a career graveyard
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@Howard "it is often a fringe contingency for uncompetitive persons."
Is that necessarily bad?
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My husband and I have a home in the region, which we love for its isolation and vistas. I hope that the financial model works. The other regular paper, The Alpine Avalanche, doesn't offer much coverage; the region deserves more robust reporting as it's at the forefront of environmental damages due to fracking and pipeline construction. Cheers to the boldness of this approach!
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@Marilyn Coincidentally, there was an article on fracking in yesterday's issue of The Sentinel, written by reporter Steven Paulson.
Here's the link for anyone who might be interested in reading some of the strong reporting being done by this paper:
https://bigbendsentinel.com/2020/02/19/water-regulators-greenlight-water-for-fracking-operation/
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Maine is incredibly fortunate in that a state with such a small population (under 1.5 million), has 3 excellent (almost) daily newspapers. Unfortunately, several papers will stop printing the Monday editions starting in March. Hope this isn't the beginning of the end.
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I give it 2 years. The half life is ~2.4 years. It’s easy to be nomenklatura when there is so little competition to be cool.
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@Howard You should check it out. The space is amazing and the tacos are out of this world. Since the bookstore changed and is no longer the place to gather for cocktails - this is perfect for this town. I was there at Christmas visiting my mom who lives there and we went and I see it lasting. Been going to Marfa for 20+years and have seen businesses come and go.
@Howard "nomenklatura"? you must be cool or russian
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@Howard
Gee, I bet a lot of folks think that about Austin.....
What a lovely business plan--I hope the NYT will take it up and create a wonderful coffee/bar downstairs. I would love to spend an afternoon there next time I visit. Imagine seeing Tom Friedman and (insert your favorite reporters' names here) stop by for an afternoon cappuccino! I've read the Times has an amazing garden on the first floor--add a little coffee/bar and some of us might never leave!
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Well, I guess it all depends on what your definition of "local" is and two recent transplants from NYC don't really fit the definition anywhere in West Texas but Marfa.
Most Texans left Marfa years ago. It's an oasis for pretenders, recent arrivals and everything Donald Judd left NYC to avoid. Gentrification.
Viva Terlingua!!
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@Lou Good
And viva Valentine!
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@Lou Good Not true. Although I love Terlingua been going since I was a kid. Marfa has some many more cool things to do. I will say I am stunned by the growth of Terlingua! But just because they have transplants from NYC does not mean they don't have lots of local Marfans. Been going to Marfa most of my life. Love it but it is not for everyone.
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“All the ‘real’ Texans left Marfa years ago? These new people are ‘pretenders’?!?”
As a transplant from the East Coast to Texas I gotta tell you I’m about sick and fed-up tired with this kind of thinking.
All you “real Texans” should read your history because NONE of the people you venerate in your state’s history were “real” Texans.
Sam Houston came here from Virginia.
Jim Bowie came here from Kentucky.
Wm. Travis came here from South Carolina.
[Add your personal favorite here. Google him. See? He wasn’t born here, either.]
The only “real” Texans who have a claim to that adjective all have Hispanic surnames. So, please...
Get over yourselves.
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How interesting! I was in Marfa a year ago and picked up a copy of the newspaper. That may have been before it was taken over. As a retired journalist, I was pleased to see it and impressed with it overall. I'll be interested to return and experience the new offerings. Love Marfa!
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Fantastic! What a wonderful solution in a time where the lack of real news is dwindling in local communities.
I remember a time when every hotel delivered the local newspapers to the door as part of their service to their customers. Now, you're lucky to see a newspaper in the lobby.
Today, services on the decline, everywhere. Now you even have to bring your own soap and shampoo in most hotels. Customer conveniences are a thing of the past.
To the owners of the Sentinel, "well done."
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I was an advertising executive for 16 years with the Austin American-Statesman (still the daily here, but a shadow of its glory days). I took a buyout a few years ago, given the sad, inevitable decline in the business. Creative solutions like what Mr. Kabat and Ms. Crow have imagined are what is needed to keep journalism moving forward. Kudos!
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@Ron I'm also an Austin American-Statesman alum. I'm not sure if you remember, but several publishers ago, there was talk of putting a coffee shop in the building. One that would be open to the public. I'm not sure what happened to the idea, but at the time I hoped they would do it. I love what this couple has done. I hope it is hugely successful.
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This is an interesting model and I wish them all the best with it. But how can other small cities that don’t capture well-meaning wealthy people parachuting in from the metropolis hope to replicate it? Those Scandinavian-inspired design build outs and liquor licenses ain’t cheap. The promise of the headline may be limited to other small towns with “it” factor Marfa offers. Don’t see this happening in Sheboygan.
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@Sara Campbell
Some towns fit the bill as folks seek out a retreat to work and think. Marfa was the setting for "Giant" (James Dean) much earlier and that may have initially put it on the map for obscure and available creative locales.
When Donald Judd bought up some abandoned military buildings to construct his sculpture in Marfa it really helped artists and others imagine opportunities for themselves.
Don't be too quick to diss Sheboygan, WI though. It also attracts international artists to come work in space set aside for sculpture projects at the Kohler factory in town. As well as starting that program, family member Ruth Kohler initiated a large scale regional art center serving the surrounding area.
Since I'm sure there are plenty of cafes serving espresso and many more bookstores than when I worked at the artists' space in the 80s the only reason I can see for potentially less action is that winter is too darn cold!
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Sounds terrific. My family goes back to Cape Cod in the 1600's. In those days, taverns were all over the place, and were the center of a lot of activities.
Numerous ancestors of mine had taverns, and one person, Elisha Doane, a whale oil magnate in Boston at the time of the revolution, owned the famous "Bunch of Grapes Tavern", in Boston.
This almost is a variation on that great tradition.
And I'm of the opinion that a good bar and restaurant adds far more to a community than a church. The small newspaper business has turned into a nightmare of survival, so new ideas like this will really help keep these valuable journals alive. A big congrats Max Kabat and Maisie Crow for their hard work and creativity!
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Without a newspaper, there is no one to watch what governments (city, county, district) are doing and let citizens know whether mayors, council members, supervisors, etc. are acting in their best interests.
People do not seem to recognize what will inevitably happen if the small and medium-sized newspapers that have flourished all over this country are allowed to slip away.
There will be rampant corruption and cronyism and abuses of all kinds that will never be reported or revealed.
Journalists have long been the gatekeepers of our systems of government. Despite being sucked --wrongly, I believe-- into the profit demands of capitalism, newspapers are much more than businesses. They are like essential public utilities.
As they say, "Democracy dies in darkness."
This is demonstrably true.
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I've stayed and toured outside Marfa several times. The topography is amazing. Felt like an African safari. Marfa very cool & hip.
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Have you ever been to Africa? Madagascar or Tunisia? It is so varied. How can very small Marfa and environs feel like the continent of Africa?
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@joan Hey, now! Marfa may be small but I imagine most towns in Africa are small, too. However, there is absolutely nothing small about the "environs" of Marfa. Miles and miles of Texas...
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@Rick , Howdy, Imagine Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Nairobi, Lagos, Kinshasa, Cairo. Maputo, Rabat, Dakar,not small towns. Do miles of Texas look like Rwanda, Botswana, or?, have gorilla reserves, rivers like the Zambezi, Congo, or the Nile, or falls like Victoria? I came to the USA from Madagascar, having rented a car in Alpine in order to visit Marfa and environs, got off the train from LA in the middle of the night. Rental car place was amazed to see me the next morning. Thought a rental request from Madagascar was a prank. We worked it out, had a lot of laughs and they were quite sure Alpine and Marfa were not like Madagascar. No lemurs nor Baobab trees. Love the area. Love Madagascar. Love Africa but trying to make it clear Africa is a continent, not a state. btw, it is even bigger than Texas, let alone Marfa and environs.
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Every time I read an article about Marfa I smile the smile of an 80 something old man who remembers what Marfa was like just 28 years ago-dust on the trail. These young people are commendable. But, try to remember dust has away of sticking around.
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@KIRBY Here's another 80-something who remembers Marfa from nearly 63 years ago, October 1957. I would never have guessed this bend in the road had a newspaper.
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The decline of local and print journalism makes America less great, but this is awesome. I think the solutions to our problems will originate organically, from the bottom up, like this. I wish them all the best.
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It's a cool town. I'm surprised that there was nothing about tourists who come for the Marfa lights (which I think are visible to suggestible people).
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@Joe
The lights are visible. I've seen them! From atop a windy hill on a March evening with the tumbleweed blowing lonesomely around. I appreciate Marfa's amenities and this new venture sounds impressive but what has always brought me back to Marfa was that windswept, West Texas vibe.
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@Susan Napier Modify that to "Far" West Texas and you've captured it.
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@Joe Nope. Not just to the suggestible.
Bravo to this! Keeping a newspaper alive is how to help democracy thrive. And that, of course, has never been more important than it is now. I imagine my late cousin Tim O’Connell, a newspaper-loving Texan to the bone, beaming fondly upon this enterprise. I bet my mother’s cousin and Texas Observer co-founder Ronnie Dugger can relate.
There’s magic afoot in Marfa, a swell and dandy place to celebrate.
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