NEWS
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2019
Purchase of Observer,
Herald becomes fi nal
By ANDREW CUTLER
STAFF WRITER
For the staffs of the
Baker City Herald and The
Observer in La Grande,
Thursday’s
news
that
Bankruptcy Judge Trish M.
Brown authorized the sale
of the two papers to the EO
Media Group was a chance
to breathe a sigh of relief.
For the EO Media Group,
the news continues the com-
pany’s push to strengthen
its position as a leading
regional media presence.
“We’re very pleased to
have La Grande and Baker
City as part of the EO Media
Group. We’re excited about
the many possibilities this
affords us in Eastern Ore-
gon,” said Heidi Wright, the
EO Media Group chief oper-
ations offi cer.
“The purchase of these
papers gives our company
a greater ability to serve
the region in a more effec-
tive way. This will grow EO
Media Group’s presence in
Eastern Oregon from four
newspapers to six.”
On Monday the two new
acquisitions offi cially joined
the East Oregonian, Hermis-
ton Herald, Wallowa County
Chieftain and Blue Moun-
tain Eagle as the EO Media
Group’s properties in East-
ern Oregon.
“The joining together
of these outstanding news
and advertising operations,
with four of them located
along the I-84 corridor, will
mean greater resources and
opportunities for both local
and regional news report-
ing. And that’s a good thing
for readers in all markets,”
EO Media Group Regional
Publisher Chris Rush said.
Western
Communica-
tions, which also owns the
Bend Bulletin, fi led for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy pro-
tection in January. The
company fi rst sought to
restructure, then decided to
liquidate its assets. This was
La Grande Observer Photo/Ronald Bond
The EO Media Group’s purchase of The Observer and Baker
City Herald from Western Communications was authorized
Thursday. The sale became fi nal July 1.
the second bankruptcy for
Western Communications in
the past 10 years. It emerged
from another bankruptcy in
2012.
The Observer and Baker
City Herald Publisher Kar-
rine Brogoitti said to fi nally
reach this milestone was
something she couldn’t
fathom a year ago.
“When things were their
toughest or looked incred-
ibly bleak, the thing that
kept me, and everyone else,
going was that commitment
to what we do,” she said.
“The pride and passion
that these staffs have for
their papers, their commu-
nities, their readers and their
advertisers is something that
I continue to be amazed at.
It’s that unyielding passion
that got us through some
incredibly stressful days,”
Brogoitti said.
Brogoitti
said
she
believes there are brighter
days ahead with new owner-
ship in place and a renewed
sense of optimism in both
locations.
“Now, we get to reap the
benefi ts of that hard work,”
she said. “The EO Media
Group saw a smart and prof-
itable investment and a ded-
icated, loyal staff.”
According to court docu-
ments, the EO Media Group
bought the two commu-
nity newspapers from West-
ern Communications for
$775,000.
Rush said EO Media
Group is only buying the
newspapers and business
equipment, not the real
estate in La Grande. The
Herald is in a leased space
in downtown Baker City.
The Observer will likely be
relocating from their current
home on Fifth Street to new
offi ce space in La Grande
sometime this summer.
Rush, who will add La
Grande and Baker City to
his role as regional pub-
lisher of the Eastern Oregon
group, said for the near term
there are no signifi cant oper-
ational changes planned.
“The EO Media Group is
hiring all current employees
in both the La Grande and
Baker City operations,” he
said. “Readers and adver-
tisers will have the same
printing, publishing and
delivery schedule for both
newspapers.”
Brogoitti will remain in
charge of day-to-day opera-
tions in both locations as the
publisher.
The papers offi cially
became part of the EO
Media Group July 1.
We Hear You!
You deserve total audiological care.
Professional. Experienced. Local.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Hermiston School District librarian Delia Fields will travel to Greece this summer through
an educational program at Porland State Univeristy’s Center for Geography Education.
Hermiston School District
librarian is headed to Greece
Delia Fields hopes trip
will spark ideas
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
From the cliff top mon-
asteries of Meteora, to the
narrow Gates of the Samariá
Gorge on the island of
Crete, one of Hermiston’s
own is going to see it all in
Greece this month.
Delia Fields, the second-
ary school librarian at the
Hermiston School District,
has been selected to be part
of a group of 14 educators
from across Oregon for the
trip, organized by Center
for Geography Education in
Oregon, based out of Port-
land State University.
The C-GEO works to
“improve and sustain”
geography education in
Oregon. In addition to pro-
viding instructional materi-
als and other resources, the
organization has sent teach-
ers on trips within Oregon,
across the nation and to
other countries.
“Their most basic point
is you’re more able to teach
about a place when you’ve
been there and you can
share fi rsthand experience
about it,” Fields said.
Ancient Greece, some-
times known as the Cradle
of Western Civilization, is
a key component of world
history. The educators will
be visiting Athens, Delphi,
and Crete, where they will
have the opportunity to take
a local cooking class.
The C-GEO gave each
of the program participants
a handful of gifts to give out
to people they meet during
the trip as “goodwill ges-
tures”, including copies of
an Oregon atlas.
Fields will be the only
educator from the Eastern
Oregon area to attend this
trip, which was funded by
the John and Betty Gray
Geography
Foundation,
through the Oregon Com-
munity Foundation.
“We’ve been doing this
for a few years now and it
really has been impactful
for teachers to have these
opportunities to really learn
geography education in the
process of the trip,” said
Nancy Bales, executive
director of the Gray Family
Foundation.
Through the same pro-
gram, Fields was able to
visit the Appalachian region
of the U.S. a few summers
ago. She said the trip helped
her create some of the most
involved lesson plans she’s
ever designed.
All of the educators,
Field included, will return
to Oregon after 17 days to
create different K-12 lesson
plans, including ones which
incorporate Oregon’s geog-
raphy with Greece’s.
“This reaches the stu-
dents and the students’ fam-
ilies. You’ve got to be lit-
erate in geography just
to operate in our world,”
Fields said, “Just because
it’s important, regrettably,
doesn’t mean we can fi nd
the time for it. So you have
to be creative.”
Fields is working on
imagining how Greek edu-
cators express the rich
ancient culture of Greece
to their students, and how
those approaches might
translate to regional history
and geography.
“When kids go to Whit-
man Mission and all there
is is just some rubble, some
outlines, they have to imag-
ine Marcus and Narcissa’s
cabin,” Fields said.
Participants will also be
giving presentations on dif-
ferent regions of Greece
during the trip. Fields will
be presenting information
on Delphi, which Ancient
Greeks believed to be the
center of the world.
For now, Fields is brush-
ing up on her Greek and
looking forward to view-
ing the Acropolis of Ath-
ens through her hotel win-
dow when the group makes
their fi rst stop in the Greek
capital.
“Some of it looks like
not much,” Fields said of
the ancient sites of Greece
she will soon visit. “But
I can only imagine what
came before.”
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