Welcome back to the Cortland Standard.
It’s been a few months since you last heard from us, but we’re back and ready to deliver the news in a new and fresh way.
Sample News Group purchased the Cortland Standard through United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York on May 7.
Sample News Group is owned by George “Scoop” Sample, with Brian Nalepa serving as the president. Mindy Lawrence, previously the advertising and marketing director at the Cortland Standard, will serve as the Cortland’s Standard’s publisher. Lawrence is also the publisher of the Oswego County Media Group, which now includes the Cortland Standard.
We’re also bringing plenty of talented people – Andrea Wilkinson, Rick Partigianoni, Heaven Longo, Jessica Baker and Nick Cummings – on the sales, advertising and customer service front.
Then for the newsroom, I, Paul Cifonelli, will be making the jump from sports editor to managing editor. We’re also bringing back Matt Bernat to be our design and digital editor, while Matt Czeitner will re-join our sports team on a part-time basis. Aidan Briggs, a former intern and recent SUNY Brockport graduate, will be our new sports editor, while Paige Kinsley, also a recent SUNY Brockport graduate, will be our staff reporter specializing in features and the arts.
The team isn’t complete, as we are still looking for a government and police reporter.
We will try to honor the history of the Cortland Standard, while making some changes to modernize the newspaper.
Some of you may have already noticed the new masthead. The newspaper will have a slightly different aesthetic. The content in the newspaper will be slightly different.
One thing we aren’t changing is our dedication to providing timely, important news. We want to put an emphasis on local content.
We want to tell your stories, because you are what makes the greater Cortland area so unique. We want to hear what you have going on, what special accomplishments you’ve had and what milestones you may have hit. We will have a dedicated community page for submitted content, which will be formatted to AP style and presented to the public.
The newspaper will also be 16 pages during the week, with a 24-page Saturday issue, like the one you’re reading now. We will have a full comics page, a full advice and puzzle page and a half sports agate page every single day – like you asked for.
We want to know everything that’s happening in Cortland County and the surrounding areas, so shoot us a message to give us a heads up. The newsroom can be reached at pcifonelli@cortlandstandard.com or news@cortlandstandard.com.
The newsroom will still provide the necessary coverage that isn’t all sunshine and roses. We’ll be at town board meetings, common council meetings and school board meetings covering both the deals made and disagreements. We will cover local crime, because people deserve to know what is happening, and where. We will cover elections to the best of our ability, because the public should be able to make an educated vote for every single official that represents them.
And because I’m sure people will be asking, I will make sure I can get out to do sports every now and then. It’s still where my passion is and what I love to do, but I need to head this project to bring local news back to Cortland in a new and interesting way.
My goal is to turn the Cortland Standard into a true community newspaper.
Lawrence has lived in Locke for seven years and is firmly entrenched in the greater Cortland community. Sample News Group hired her shortly after the closure of the Cortland Standard with the intention of helping her bring news back to the area.
Lawrence has been involved in local media for 18 years and is great at getting the right people around to make things work well.
Her goal is to make this a sustainable operation for the long term and keep the Cortland community informed and armed with a trusted, reliable news outlet.
Sample News Group executives have been in Cortland since the ruling on May 7 to ensure this first issue gets to your front porch or newsstand with the quality we expect. Nalepa and Sample News Group Managing Editor Margaret Weaver have helped Lawrence and I get operations off the ground, with some added help from Batavia Daily News and Livingston County News Managing Editor Ben Beagle, The Bee Group Publisher Heather Zerillo, The Daily Review and Morning Times Publisher Aimee O’Conner, The Daily Review Managing Editor Tim Zyla, Regional Director of Circulation Bill Kurtz and Production Director Phil Reitz.
We want to thank Link Property Group, which is hosting us in their office temporarily before we make a permanent move to 50 Main St., Cortland. We also have to thank the Cortland Post Office – Postmaster Cristie Beam and Lead Postal Clerk Lisa Everle – KurtCo Technologies, HomeTowne Studios and Conference Center, Creative Circle Media Solutions, Software Consulting Services, the Cortland Area Chamber of Commerce and Cortland Mayor Scott Steve for all their help with getting this operation up and running.
We hope this first newspaper and all the rest are one’s that our loyal readers are proud of. We’re always looking for feedback to make this the best news outlet for the greater Cortland community.
