Man cancels international vacation to save California's oldest weekly newspaper

A Northern California man has stepped in to save the Downieville-based Mountain Messenger, the oldest weekly newspaper in the state, according to SFGate and CBS13.

Editor-publisher Don Russell was planning to close the Sierra County weekly in January after looking for a buyer for a year with no takers. Then his friend, Carl Butz, expressed an interest in purchasing the paper, canceling a monthslong trip across Europe and Asia to come up with cash for the historic buy.

"What am I going to do? Go on another trip around the world?" Butz said to SFGate. "Instead, I'm doing something good for the community, and I feel good about it."

Established in 1853, The Mountain Messenger, where Mark Twain published a few stories, has a circulation of about 2,400. Russell's spent 30 years managing its day-to-day operations. In 2019, his salary was $3,000.

The purchase price of the paper was not disclosed.

“You know, Don told me, ‘You're a romantic idealist and a fool, you don't want to do this,'” Butz said to CBS13. “And I said, ‘It's not news that I'm a romantic idealist and a fool.'”

Butz, who is a widower and a retired independent software consultant, is considering creating a website for the newspaper. He also wants to cover the region's outdoor trails and campgrounds.

"I got all these papers from the 1800s. They're wonderful to be reading now," he said to SFGate. "Nobody is going to be doing that 100 years from now with the digital stuff. I'm not a Luddite but I think there are some things we shouldn't lose. The printed word being one of them."