Comstock Chronicle changes hands one more time

The Sparks Tribune has purchased Storey County's Comstock Chronicle. The new publisher, Nancy Streets, took over operation of the small community paper Sunday.

"This was an opportunity for the company to own another community newspaper in Nevada," she said. "When something like this comes along, you have to strike."

Streets is a member of the Tribune's editorial board and giving up her job as advertising manager.

She said she loves Virginia City and is looking forward to the new job.

"We're not planning any major changes," she said. "We will continue to feature some of the contributors already writing for the paper. I'll be doing some of the writing, and, for now, we're going to take it one day at a time."

She said Chronicle owners Kristen Bachler and Betty Kaplowitz approached the owners of the Sparks Tribune several months ago about selling the Chronicle. The deal was completed in late April.

The Comstock has been home to about 51 publications since its inception around 1859. The Chronicle is one of the few survivors.

Comstock authors and local characters Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg bought the paper in February of 1959. It passed to publisher Gary Elam in 1987. Editor, writer and jack-of-all-trades Martin Lane owned the paper in 1992, running it until Bachler and Kaplowitz purchased it in January 2001.

Sparks Tribune Limited Liability Corp. was created in December when longtime publishers Randy Frisch and Butch Alford joined Tribune member Dominic Welsh to purchase the paper from the Lewiston Group.

A graduate of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Streets worked in advertising at the Statesman Journal Newspaper in Salem, Ore., for 10 years. Twelve years ago, she began at the Tribune.