San Diego Community Newspaper Group (SDCNG) continues its 2019 growth spurt with the addition of a new publication — the College Times Courier.
The new community newspaper will cover news from the College Area and Rolando and will publish on the third Friday of every month.
“I feel this is a good addition to our community coverage of the east side of San Diego. It bridges the gap nicely between the Mission Times Courier to the north of Interstate 8 and east with La Mesa Courier,” said SDCNG publisher Julie Main. “There are a lot of school districts and shared interests between these well-established communities.”
The College Times Courier was created in response to community members and business leaders from the College Area who approached Main about returning coverage and distribution of the Mission Times Courier to the College Area. The Mission Times Courier had previously distributed into College Area under publisher Jim Madaffer before he sold the paper to San Diego Community Newspaper Network (SDCNN) publisher David Mannis, who then consolidated coverage and distribution to the Navajo neighborhoods of Grantville, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro and San Carlos. Mission Times Courier, along with most of SDCNN’s publications, were acquired by SDCNG in March.
Rather than extend coverage by Mission Times Courier, Main decided that College Area deserved a publication of its own.
“We approached the San Diego Community Newspaper Group to discuss the possibility of extending the territory of one of their other papers (Mission Times Courier, La Mesa Courier) to include the College Area,” wrote Collee Area Community Planning Board president Jose Renoso in a column for the inaugural issue of College Times Courier. “Fortuitously, the publisher felt that we are a unique community and the fact that we are currently undertaking a community-generated community plan update to create and implement the vision that the community has for itself, warranted a paper dedicated to the community.”
College Times Courier’s editorial team will be led by Jeff Clemetson who is currently editor of Mission Times Courier and La Mesa Courier.
“I love the fact that College Area communities are nestled between the regions I already cover. There’s some continuity there, but it has always been obvious to me that College Area has its own characteristics — and now that I’ve been on the beat for the last few weeks, I’ve been excited to discover a community rich with new stories to write about and share with readers,” Clemetson said.
Handling advertising sales is Lauren Vernon, who was hired in August. Vernon is originally from Fairfax, Va. and moved to San Diego in 2014. She has an extensive background in sales, most recently at Zoom Media.
For more information about advertising in College Times Courier, email Vernon at [email protected]. To submit ideas for editorial content or calendar items, email [email protected].