Diversity at Work

When Lisa Snell left her job as a graphic artist in 2007, she didn't expect that a year later she would become the managing editor and owner of a Native American paper.

The job demands almost 100 hours of Snell's week and requires her to juggle the roles of designer, writer, editor, online publisher and more -- all without getting paid. But Snell, who just celebrated her one-year anniversary at the paper, says the experience has been both personally and professionally gratifying.

Publishing the paper, she said, has been a meaningful way to give back to the greater Native American community. But it has also presented her with the challenge of figuring out how to make enough money to financially support herself.

I interviewed her to learn more about this challenge and others she has faced while essentially running the paper on her own.

Lisa Snell

In 2003, Snell accepted a graphic artist position at the Cherokee Phoenix in Tahlequah, Okla., the Native American newspaper first published in 1828. Here, she said, she finally found a job where she fit in, where her work was noticed and appreciated by a Native community, and where she got a decent paycheck.

When her fiancé (and now her husband), Travis Snell, became the paper's assistant editor in December 2006, however, Snell resigned to avoid issues of nepotism. Needing a new source of income, she applied for various jobs within the tribe and at local businesses.

Through a printer she knew, Snell eventually found a part-time, work-from-home-job putting together Yellow Page ads. It wasn't a lot of work, but it provided her with some needed income. Soon after, when one of the printer's clients, Native American Times, needed a new graphic artist to put the newspaper together, he recommended Snell. 

Although it was a major pay cut from her job at the Phoenix, Snell accepted the opportunity of steady employment and to work for a newspaper again. Later in August 2008, she heard from the owner that the budget needed to be cut, and with it, her position. With two weeks' notice, Snell didn't know what the future held for her. She was surprised, then, to hear at the end of the two weeks that the owner was selling the newspaper and that it could be hers if she was interested.

Owner Elizabeth Gore told me that she considered other buyers but that Snell was her preferred choice. Gore said she felt Snell understood the need to keep the newspaper intertribal, unbiased, independent and free from outside influences.

Snell said various thoughts crossed her mind. She wondered: Could a graphic artist really take over a newspaper business? It would be a huge commitment -- in terms of both time and money -- and she needed to discuss the possibility with her husband.

It also meant she would be independent, have a flexible schedule and be able to remain at home to raise her baby daughter. Snell thought back to when she was in her parents' feed store as a child and reflected on how much work they put into their own business. Here was her opportunity to do the same, with her own daughter now in tow. 

After a week of serious deliberation, during which Snell took into account the poor economy and her lack of other job opportunities, she decided to buy the newspaper effective Sept. 1, 2008. (Snell declined to release the purchase price, explaining it was a confidential agreement between her and the previous owner.)

Getting the paper out

Drawing on her previous experiences working at the Phoenix and at a monthly magazine in Oklahoma, where she wrote, edited and did graphic design and advertising work, Snell set goals for herself and the paper.

Her first goal was to run the business as usual. She had all the business files, ads were coming in, news was being filtered, business e-mails were being forwarded and the distribution routes were running. It took a couple of months, Snell said, before anyone inquired if the newspaper had a new owner. She gradually tweaked the front-page design, moving from seven stories to four or five, which helped make the paper appear less cluttered.

In addition to writing articles herself, Snell publishes stories from the Associated Press and from three freelance writers. She collaborates with other small-town newspapers and tribal publications by sharing the stories she publishes in the Times and republishing theirs. And she uses community writers -- people who are gifted in telling a good yarn and willing to do it for free. She is also the online editor/publisher of the paper's Web site, which was included in the purchase.

Owning a local newspaper, she has found, means investing time in both the publication and the community it serves. "You need time in your community to sell the newspaper, or someone to sell your product for you and know that it's a product worth selling," Snell said. "You have to believe in it because no one else will if you don't."

Before she bought it, the paper had more of a national focus. As she gradually changed the newspaper's focus back to more localized news, Snell lost some national subscriptions but picked up others throughout the state.

Her parents helped out the first month by taking the handwritten delivery sheets and delivering the newspaper four days a week. Snell even drove a delivery route herself. Then a reader in southern Oklahoma offered to distribute the newspaper for free to local stores and senior centers in the area. She now has five distribution drivers, including the volunteer (whom she now pays). Snell continues to drive a route herself, too.

"There is no newspaper without distribution," she said. "It's the most important thing and the most time consuming."

One year later

Snell celebrated her one-year anniversary as owner of the Native American Times on Sept. 1. The Native American Times' circulation is now 6,500, a 30 percent increase from when she first took over. In March, 16,000 copies of the paper's free special edition, Pow Wow Guide, were printed and quickly ran out. Web traffic appears to have increased since she bought. Increase in print circulation naturally led to an increase in production costs.

Snell has to carry over ad revenue from week to week to cover costs, but lately she has been able to start building a reserve, helped in part by a client that paid for a full year of advertising upfront. At the beginning of the year, she paid off a credit card that she used to make ends meet when she first took over. In May she started making monthly payments on her loan.

Subscription rates, now $65 a year, increased over 35 percent during the course of the year. Major advertisers are Bank2 (owned by Chickasaw Nation) and Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino (owned by Osage Nation).

Now that she's made the commitment, what's next? Snell said her main goals moving forward are to continue to make the newspaper a thriving and viable business, increase revenue and distribution and hire paid, full-time news staff members. Right now she doesn't even pay herself.

With a news staff, she could start focusing more on investigative stories and work toward establishing the paper as a community watchdog. Snell said she also hopes to add videos, podcasts and other multimedia components to the Web site, while finding other ways to make it more user-friendly.

Her advice to journalists looking for a new job? Get yourself and your work out there, and even offer to do pro bono work. Her advice as a newspaper entrepreneur? Show the people in your community that they are valuable to you, that you're providing a resource and service to them and that you care.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the newsstand price of the newspaper and the number of volunteer drivers, and it inaccurately stated that Snell decided to stop charging for the paper.