Longtime co-owner recalls 30 years at The Athens NEWS

In 1977, Guy Philips started as a freshman at Ohio University. Coincidentally, that was also the year that The Athens NEWS started publication.

While still in college, Philips took a job selling advertising space in The NEWS. Today, 30 years later, he is still an ad salesman for the paper (though nowadays they're referred to as "advertising consultants"). He is also, however, a part owner of the business, and has been so for many years.

"As a college student, I was working at the OU Post as a salesperson," Philips recalled. He then jumped to a similar job at The NEWS. Upon graduating, he said, NEWS publisher Bruce Mitchell offered him a deal "under which I could buy in (to the paper) a little bit."

At the time, Philips said, the free, alternative paper was still struggling to get its footing financially. (This is not surprising, given that the papers at that time were often only 12 pages thick.)

The year he joined the staff, he noted, was the first year The NEWS turned a (small) profit though he stressed that he doesn't think he's the guy who's mainly responsible for turning red ink into black.

Philips took advantage of Mitchell's offer, obtaining part ownership of the paper by borrowing "a small amount of money from my older brother." Over the years, he's increased his equity stake in the paper by buying out other shareholders.

Looking back today, Philips recalls a free-wheeling camaraderie among the paper's staff as they worked long hours to try to get it established as a viable news business.

"It was rough," he admitted. "The readership was always building, but we covered some stuff that people didn't like It was a challenge to community standards."

At one point, he noted, news coverage by The NEWS so upset the local establishment that the Athens Chamber of Commerce "was basically trying to organize a boycott" of the paper.

Part of the excitement of the early days, Philips said, was that the small staff was made up pretty exclusively of young people, just getting their start in the world of journalism.

"Everybody was in their early 20s," he recalled. "We worked hard, and we played just as hard."

A typical day at work for The Athens NEWS staff back in the day, he said, would involve a huge amount of work, followed by some serious decompression at an uptown Athens bar.

"We would come to work at 8 in the morning, then work till 9 or 10 at night," he said. "We would finish up at the C.I. (bar), usually, I think."

So was it a smart investment decision, three decades ago, to buy stock in The Athens NEWS? Yes, Philips said though he stressed that it wasn't like buying stock in McDonald's or IBM in their formative years.

Though he's made a modest profit from his ownership in the paper, Philips said, more important to him is his involvement in what he believes is an important Athens institution. He noted in particular what he believes was the paper's role in helping get dark-horse Democratic politicians, such as Jan Michael Long and Jolynn Boster, elected to the state legislature.

"I think what makes me most proud about being involved with the paper is not the financial return," he said. "First and foremost, we serve the community I think we've had a very strong voice in the community, and we've helped form Athens."