Paper Boon

An all-out newspaper war is raging at the Springbok News stand in Sierra Madre, where three little weeklies are battling to lay claim to this quaint city, which has nary a stoplight or a chain supermarket.

Or, necessarily, a lot of news.

With a population of about 11,000, Sierra Madre has three weeklies competing neck and neck to cover the minute details of city government, the latest Chamber of Commerce events, births and college acceptances--the bread and butter of small-town papers everywhere. Except in Sierra Madre, the headlines are in stereo.

“It was a relatively uneventful City Council meeting Tuesday night,” began the lead story in the Aug. 28 Sierra Madre News. Pick up the rival Sierra Madre Mountain Views and learn that “debate at the Aug. 26 City Council meeting was mild.” Turn to the Arcadia Weekly’s Sierra Madre section and find out the “Chamber Mixer Was ‘Hot.’ ”

But beneath the stories and columns lies a bitter personal and business feud. The war has pitted a former prominent advertiser and top employee of the Sierra Madre News--the oldest paper in town--against its new owner.

And in a reverse spin on hyped headlines that typical news wars are made of, the start-up competitors are vying to become the most neighborly paper in Sierra Madre, intent on protecting their city’s bucolic lifestyle.

“We’ll share a little humor, a puzzle, even a controversy or two,” says a flier announcing the creation of the Sierra Madre Mountain Views. “We may be new but we have a good old-fashioned idea of what a hometown newspaper should be.”

The rift began nearly three years ago, when a flamboyant and nattily attired twentysomething named Michael De Wees bought the Sierra Madre News for $85,000, naming himself editor and publisher. The former editor and publisher, Jannene G. Reed, sold the 3,500-circulation weekly after a labor dispute cost thousands of dollars in legal fees.

De Wees--who bought an El Monte weekly at the age of 21, left Cal State L.A. to operate it and dreams of becoming a community journalism mogul--shook up the staid News. In the process he shook up the town and infuriated some News employees.

He ran reports on the city’s use of a private investigator to follow an employee. He published letters criticizing local businesses (one complained that the name of a local coffeehouse called Bean Town was offensive to Latinos). And the Police Calls column became a satire on the low Sierra Madre crime rate, sporting headlines like: “My Mailbox Has Fallen and Can’t Get Up!” and “Bug Trespassing.”

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All this from a paper that for 90 years had chronicled the community’s Fourth of July parade, wisteria vine festival and all-volunteer Fire Department. Residents could even pay their utility bills at its offices. Former editor Reed said she prided herself on avoiding “harsh” stories.

Upset by the direction of the News, advertiser Frank “Moe” Marshal, owner of Moe’s 76 gas station, pulled his ads out of the News and helped start the Mountain Views this summer. The Views--now owned primarily by editor Beth Buck--is a free, 5,000-circulation paper which projects a warmer, reader-friendly image. It has a fitness column, a how-to feature on Internet use and an advice column by a local therapist. One page displays drawings by local children.

Last year, Von Raees, the former general manager of the News, quit after a dispute with De Wees and started the rival Arcadia Weekly, hiring away a raft of News staffers. The Weekly, which includes a section called the Sierra Madre Weekly, is the most subdued of the three newspapers. For example, the chairman of the Fourth of July parade wrote this year’s story on the parade.

With so much written about such a little town, some residents feel like they are suffocating in newsprint.

“Whatever paper the town likes will be here in six months, the rest will be gone,” said Buck, the editor of the Views. “Sierra Madre isn’t big enough for the three of us.”

“It is overkill,” said George Maurer, 73, a former mayor and News pressman who was at a kaffeeklatsch with local old-timers in the Sandwich Stop eatery. “Take a look around. There aren’t enough advertisers for more than one paper.”

De Wees says he is unfazed by the crowded field.

“I’m not afraid of competition. I know what I can do,” he said. “We’re digging harder for news.”

He also uses his ink to publish digs at the competition. A recent News promotion touted it as the No. 1 local newspaper for 90 years, until “others came from West Covina and Iraq.”

“I am not from Iraq. I was born in Iran,” replied Raees in an interview.

And the sniping among the three sometimes spills into their newspapers.

The News occasionally cranks up its headlines, to the displeasure of its competitors. “Who Will Have the Last Laugh?” asked a banner headline in the Aug. 21 edition over stories on a longtime city employee’s contention that she was improperly fired.

The rival Views shot back in an editorial the next week: “There is no ‘last laugh’ here. There’s only anger, frustration and pain.”

“I just couldn’t hold back after that headline,” said Views editor Buck. “What does [De Wees] think he is doing?”

Of gripes about the coverage, De Wees says: “I’m glad people talk about the paper. I want people to read the paper.” As to letters, he added, residents write them.

De Wees’ challenges, however, aren’t limited to fending off the competition. A bevy of creditors are at his heels, prompting him to declare personal bankruptcy earlier this year, citing debts of $96,000.

His financial woes came to a head in 1996, according to court documents. That was the year Reed sued De Wees, alleging that he owed her more than $22,000 for the newspaper--and that he had underpaid her by $10,000 after she stayed on as an advertising saleswoman.

“It sounds a lot worse than it is,” De Wees said of his financial situation. “There was a time when we were going through hard times.” But now the young publisher said that his business is doing better and that he will pay his creditors through a payment plan.

But he vows not to back down from the newspaper fight. He moved to a house in Sierra Madre this summer and dismisses the Weekly as an “advertising vehicle” and the Views as a ploy by activists who object to the News’ coverage.

The News plans to deliver a free paper to every household in town to build readers in the coming weeks, while the Views says it is on the verge of going from a free tabloid to one that costs 50 cents. The Arcadia Weekly boasts a 15,000 circulation, but draws most from Arcadia. Publisher Raees said he’s not forsaking Sierra Madre, however.

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From Michael Eastman’s vantage point as owner of the Springbok News, “It’s fun to have some rivalry in this town.”

Resident Betty Cleveland is glad to have the Views. “It shows a lot more thought,” she said.

In fact, much of the gray-haired establishment, still put off by De Wees’ approach, is also rooting for the Views.

“It is a good little paper,” said David May, a former mayor. “The News isn’t what it used to be in the old days.”

Verna Chilton, a local resident, added that De Wees “betrayed us. He should sell it and grow up and consider it a lesson.”

De Wees dismisses the criticism as examples of the very trait that makes Sierra Madre such unusually fertile ground for local journalism.

“It is a small town,” he said wryly. “People like to talk. . . . We’re just trying to put out papers here.”

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this story.