A Homecoming, of Sorts: How I Became the RN&R’s New Publisher

Late last April, my husband and I went to Reno to visit our parents. It was fantastic to be able to finally see so many friends and family members after 13-plus months of isolation—and, of course, to enjoy our hometown.

However, something was missing.

We stayed at the Sands Regency, and the Reno News & Review rack that had been outside of Mel’s Diner for many years was gone. We did see RN&R racks in other places, but there were no papers, and hadn’t been since March 2020. It seemed like every restaurant we walked into had an RN&R Best of Northern Nevada certificate or three proudly hanging on a wall.

Then there were the questions from friends who knew about my long history with the newspaper. The queries were all variations of: “Hey, do you know if the Reno News & Review is ever coming back?” I replied that Frank X. Mullen was doing some great stuff online, but beyond that, I didn’t know.

Reno, collectively, was missing the News & Review.

When Garrett and I got back to Palm Springs—our home since January 2013, when I started the Coachella Valley Independent newspaper—I reached out to Jeff von Kaenel and Deborah Redmond, the owners and stewards of the Reno News & Review since 1995. The subject of the email was “Saying hello.”

“The N&R has been on my mind a lot since Garrett and I spent last week in Reno, visiting family for the first time since the pandemic hit,” I wrote. “Almost all of the friends I talked to mentioned how much they missed the RN&R. It was weird seeing signs of the paper everywhere—empty racks, Best Of plaques and certificates, etc.—knowing that its future is very much up in the air.

“I wanted to reach out to you to see if there’s anything I can do to help the RN&R. Frank is doing some amazing work, and I’m glad to see it is continuing online in a limited form. If there is anything I can do, please let me know.”

My intentions with that email were true; the RN&R means a lot to me. It was the first non-college newspaper in which I ever had a byline, as a summer intern in 1996, under the guidance of editors R.V. Scheide and Erik Espe. That was when I first met D. Brian Burghart, who would become one of my journalism mentors and a lifelong friend.

The RN&R was where I had my first job after I moved back to Reno post-college. The paper needed someone to fill in for a couple of months before Amy Paris was available to start her job as an RN&R staff writer. I had a couple of months free before I was slated to start a job at the Daily Sparks Tribune. It was a fit.

A year and a half later, RN&R editor Larry Henry called me and asked if I wanted to become the RN&R’s news editor. I said yes. When Larry left several months later, Jeff von Kaenel asked me if I wanted to become the RN&R’s editor. I said yes. I was still a month shy of my 25th birthday.

After I departed the RN&R in October 2001, the paper and I never lost touch. My writing popped up in the RN&R from time to time through the years. Deidre Pike, who took over as the RN&R editor after I left, volunteered to be my wine columnist when I launched the Coachella Valley Independent in 2013. (I, of course, accepted the offer.) I stayed in contact with Jeff and Deborah; the world of alternative newspaper publishers is rather small. Jeff and I even served together on the Association of Alternative Media’s board of directors for a couple of years.

While my intentions with that email to Jeff and Deborah were true, never in a million years did I think we’d get to where we are now, with my company becoming the RN&R’s new owner and steward. I reached out to see if I could offer a helping hand as someone with Reno roots and a lot of newspaper experience—not to acquire anything.

But the universe had other plans.

“I am part honored, part excited and part terrified, as of Jan. 31, to become the Reno News & Review’s publisher and executive editor. I am thrilled to be coming back, in a way, to the place where my journalism career began. But it’s going to take a lot of work to get the RN&R back to sustainability, let alone growth and prosperity—especially when I already have my hands full being the editor and publisher of the Coachella Valley Independent.” — Jimmy Boegle, new RN&R publisher.

It’s going to take a lot of work, but I like our chances. The RN&R has a lot going for it, starting with our staff. Our editor, Frank X. Mullen, is a badass investigative reporter and Nevada Newspaper Hall of Famer who almost singlehandedly kept the paper’s website alive through the darkest days of the pandemic. We have Northern Nevada’s best and most-knowledgeable food writer, Johnathan L. Wright. And we have some familiar names coming back into the RN&R fold, including longtime film critic Bob Grimm.

The RN&R’s biggest asset, however, is the community who loves it. But make no mistake: If the community doesn’t support the RN&R, it will die. Quality local journalism costs a lot of money to report, write and disseminate. We’re also hoping to return to print as a monthly later this year, too, but printing and distribution costs have never been higher.

The RN&R’s content has always been free, and as long as I have anything to say about it, it always will be free; a lot of people can’t afford to pay for the news, but they need it. So, I am asking you, our readers: If you have a business that can afford to advertise, please do so. (It will help your business, too!) If you, personally, can afford to support the RN&R—please, support us!

Northern Nevada needs the RN&R. But the RN&R needs you.

Jimmy Boegle, as of Jan. 31, will be the RN&R’s publisher and executive editor. He is also the editor and publisher of the Coachella Valley Independent in Palm Springs, Calif. He can be reached at 760-904-4208, or jimmyb@renonr.com.