Local owner saves Ballston Journal

BALLSTON SPA (Jan. 18) — The Ballston Journal’s history took a turn out of a Frank Capra movie. What’s left to be seen is if it will have a happy ending.

The plot: Multinational corporation decides to close 211-year-old community newspaper, but hometown girl steps in to save it — with Angela McFarland making her debut as the heroine publisher.

“I’ve challenged myself to take this on and do it well,” she said.

Angela McFarland, who owns Our Towne Ballston Spa, saved the 211-year-old Ballston Journal from being closed.

Angela McFarland, who owns Our Towne Ballston Spa, saved the 211-year-old Ballston Journal from being closed.

It’s a role McFarland worried might be outside her range. So she met with longtime Journal editor Charles Hogan, who has since retired, to ask him what he thought.

“The one question I asked him was: ‘Do you think I can do this?’” said McFarland, who is a career ad salesperson. “He said yeah, and that was as simple as it was.”

For McFarland, a Ballston Spa booster and longtime fan of print publications, that was enough. She took over the weekly from the Hearst Corporation, which also owns the Times Union, the Pennysaver and the Moneysaver.

“I knew it wasn’t going to hurt my other media to be the local girl to save the hometown paper from the big bad corporation,” said McFarland, who also owns the Our Towne Ballston Spa and Our Towne Saratoga. “I was excited but a little nervous.”

Since then, she has been working on turning around the weekly, including adding digital subscriptions.

“When I took over the Journal it was bleeding money,” she said. “I slowed the bleeding, but it hasn’t stopped.”

McFarland said people are too quick to write newspapers’ obituary — something people have been doing since the invention of radio. Yet she said despite their current challenges, there still is a future for newspapers — especially community newspapers.

“There will always be an audience of people who buy content,” she said, adding that community newspapers provide information that can’t be obtained elsewhere. Still, even the most established community newspapers will have to adapt to survive.

“We’re going to see a shift,” she said. “The web probably is going to take priority, and the print product is going to be secondary.”

Even at the Journal, the web is helping. McFarland said she has sold 50 online subscriptions since the website launched compared to 10 for the print product.

“People still want that local news,” she said.

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