Native journalists return to the Ozarks ...

by Ann Bucy

SBJ Contributing Writer

There's been an explosion in local publications recently: the Free Press of the Ozarks, 417 Magazine, the Ozarks Farm and Neighbor and now, the Springfield Gazette.

The owners and publishers of the Gazette are Chuck and Karen Branch who live in Ozark.

Before moving back to the area recently, they helped run four community newspapers in San Diego. Chuck was the general manager and Karen worked as the assistant to the publisher.

"The advertisers are excited about what we're doing," Karen Branch said. "We knew the concept of a community paper would work, because it's worked other places. We knew the concept was a popular one."

For now, the planning and preproduction work of the paper is being done in their home. The printing is done at the Marshfield Mail offices in Marshfield.

They bulk drop the papers at high-traffic areas like Wal-Marts, libraries, hospitals, Barnes & Noble, the Springfield Brewing Company, Drury College, Evangel University and numerous other places.

"We put them in places where people are sitting and waiting and needing something to read, like hospital waiting rooms or in places where they can pick up a copy and read it later," Karen Branch said.

They're trying to reach the people who live and work in Springfield. "We hope you'll find someone you know in there, or an event or a business in there you're interested in reading about," she said.

They believe community involvement is an important part of what they're doing. The Gazette publishes a schedule of the Children's Miracle Networks Caremobile. According to Chuck, the Caremobile is a mobile health clinic for children from birth to age 18 who can't afford to get to a hospital.

They're also a sponsor for this year's Boys and Girls Town of Missouri Golf Tournament at Highland Springs Country Club, and are sponsoring a team, a hole and a food wagon for DARE's golf tournament.

"We don't want to just report local events," Chuck Branch said. "We want to be involved in the community."

Karen says the paper is written 100 percent by freelancers "to have a flavor of the people who live and work here, to bring their style to the paper."

The Gazette is currently published bi-weekly. Plans are for the paper to become a weekly and eventually a weekly that's distributed door to door. "It will always remain a free paper though," Chuck Branch said.

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Karen and Chuck Branch are owners and publishers of the Gazette.[[In-content Ad]]