Chris Hardie is a software engineer with a deep interest in journalism. Chris worked for Automattic for five years and recently completed a master's degree in journalism. In 2022, Chris combined these two passions by acquiring Western Wayne News in Wayne County, Indiana. The paper has a WordPress site and a weekly printed edition. It covers the spectrum of local news, including events, sports, government meetings, and business.

This episode features Steve Burge from PublishPress and Dan Knauss from Multidots.

We covered these topics and more:

• Chris shares his journey to becoming a newspaper owner and introduces Western Wayne News.
• Chris talks about is Wayne County, a quiet place but within an hour of Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Dayton.
• What changes has Chris you put in place since taking over? Is it as simple as modernizing their tech stack, or has he made other changes in how the news is delivered?
• What does an average day look like running a newspaper?
• How does a small newspaper like this earn revenue? Subscriptions? Selling the print version? Classifieds, legal announcements etc?
• How have the finances worked out so far?
• What has been the biggest challenge in going from WP development to journalism?
• What is Chris doing differently from the rest of the news industry?

Show links:

• https://chrishardie.com/blog/
• https://chrishardie.com/2022/10/so-i-bought-a-newspaper/
• https://westernwaynenews.com/newspaper-welcomes-new-ownership/
• https://westernwaynenews.com/
• https://tech.chrishardie.com/2022/tools-for-print-online-newspaper-business/
• https://stumble.press/2024/newspaper-management-software-feature-list/
• https://publishpress.com/publishing-news/local-news/wordpress-developer-buys-local-newspaper-in-indiana/
• Chris' publisher recommendation: https://404media.co