08/12/2025
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: for the Guernsey Gazette***
Veteran Wyoming News Execs Announce Agreement To Save 8 Newspapers
BUFFALO – Robb and Jen Hicks and Rob Mortimore announced Tuesday they have reached an agreement in principle with News Media Corporation to purchase the company’s Wyoming publications and resume publication immediately.
The announcement comes six days after News Media Corporation suddenly announced the immediate closure of all of its publications, including eight publications in Niobrara, Goshen, Platte, Sublette and Uinta counties.
Robb Hicks said the agreement includes rehiring all the newspapers’ staff members and immediately resuming publication of all titles.
“We are honored to assume stewardship of these legacy community newspapers,” Robb Hicks said. “Our foremost priority has been to ensure that these counties are not left without a credible, enduring source of local journalism.”
“We also owe an immense debt of gratitude to JJ Tompkins,” added Mortimore. “It would have been far simpler for him to yield to the demands of creditors. Instead, he chose to work with us to safeguard the future of these Wyoming communities, to
preserve their newspapers, and to ensure that every employee was paid and retained.”
Both Hicks and Mortimore also extended their appreciation to the newspapers’ staff for their dedication, professionalism, and steadfast belief that a solution could be secured to revive these publications.
“We are equally grateful to community members for their unwavering support,” said Hicks. “A newspaper is the lifeblood of a community, but it can only thrive when the community it serves invests in its survival.”
On Aug. 6, Tompkins, CEO of News Media Corporation, announced that the company’s eight publications in five Wyoming counties, as well as its newspapers in other states, would close immediately. Citing a “significant economic slowdown impacting our industry” and a recent failed attempt to sell the company, Tompkins
said he had made the “difficult decision” to shutter the company’s newspapers immediately.
The news of the papers’ closure was met with shock and sadness in the communities the papers serve. In Facebook comments, community members lamented the loss to their communities and questioned whether there might be options to reopen the
publications.
Mortimore has more than two decades of experience in the news industry and he was the group publisher of News Media Corporation’s Wyoming publications prior to the company closing those papers. He will continue to serve as group
publisher. He and his wife Shaylee reside in Torrington.
Robb and Jen Hicks have owned and operated the Buffalo Bulletin (Johnson County, Wyoming) since 1996. The Hicks family has multigenerational ties to Wyoming newspapers that dates back over seven decades.
