3 7
E&P seeks Publisher of the Year nominations Guest Column: Time saving design tools By Kevin Slimp
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol. 16 | No. 36 | Thursday, September 9, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Gulban develops passion for newspapers as he acquires them Newspaper publisher Jeremy Gulban didn’t understand how much he loved newspapers until he owned a few of them. The head of a New Jersey-based software and technology company, Gulban said he’s always been a “news junkie.” And when his organization first had an opportunity last year to acquire a newspaper in northern Minnesota, his interest in the industry was a key factor in the decision to make an investment. A year later and with newspapers in two other states, including Arkansas, Gulban said he’s grown stronger in his respect of and commitment to the print medium. “Once I got into the business, I realized this is something that’s always interested me,” he said. I’ve been a news junkie without really realizing it.” Earlier this year, Gulban’s company, CherryRoad Media, purchased the Mountaineer Echo in Flippin, the Marshall Mountain Wave, the Clay County Courier in Corning and the Pocahontas Star Herald.
The decision to invest in newspapers came shortly after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, at the same time Gulban “did some soul searching” about what his career would look like in the future. He sat down with family and senior leaders of CherryRoad Technology, which owns CherryRoad Media, to talk about the future of the company during the pandemic. At that time, company leaders tried to aid their municipal and school clients, but quickly saw that big tech firms like Google and Microsoft had already met their remote conferencing and work-at-home needs. Gulban identified a parallel between big tech companies and their relationships with both smaller technology firms and with news organizations. “We met to discuss what we could do to help,” at the onset of the pandemic, he said. “And the answer was nothing. It just kind of hit me that the big tech companies have such a reach that it’s really hard for anybody else to do anything. “Last summer, looking at the newspaper industry, here’s an industry that has the same kind of problems that we do – they’re getting Continued on Page 2
Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media, at the Cook County News Herald in Minnesota.