'Daily Sparks Tribune' Celebrates a Century of 'Local, Local, Local'

Ed McCaffrey, publisher of the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune, has a message for those who thought newspapers — especially his newspaper — were dead.

“Five years ago, everyone was struggling, saying newspapers are dead," he says. "Well, you know what? We’re not dead. We’re alive, living and profitable.”

Indeed. Today, the Daily Sparks Tribune celebrates 100 years of serving the city of Sparks, which lies about five miles east of Reno. It’s an unofficial date, to be sure — “There’s no one around to dispute it, so we figured we’d be OK,” says McCaffrey — but the 6,500-circulation paper will celebrate tonight at a chamber of commerce event honoring its coverage of the 85,000-population city.

The Sparks daily published a four-page wrap, not one of the huge centennial sections that typically mark such an auspicious occasion. It’s fitting, given the publisher’s joking distain for frivolity. He’s a newsman who knows his newspaper’s strength is in local coverage, and has no illusions about it.

“We’re a small community newspaper serving the city of Sparks,” he tells E&P, noting that his paper is also the city’s oldest surviving business.

“We think what we say, and say what we think,” he adds. “This is who we are — and we’ll keep reporting local, local, local.”