Steve Staeger, Anne Herbst, Laura Casillas 9 News

OURAY, Colo. — Almost any journalist will tell you they’d love to quit and open their own TV station, radio station or newspaper.

Two journalists from the Western Slope actually did it.

Erin McIntyre and Mike Wiggins both worked for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel for years. McIntyre was an investigative reporter and columnist for that paper. Wiggins was the managing editor. They’re also married.

In 2019, they decided to call it quits and move. They thought about moving to a bigger city and trying to find journalism jobs there. Then they started searching for newspapers for sale in smaller towns.

They found the Ouray County Plaindealer.

“Just because Ouray County is a place that has fewer than 5,000 people living in it, many of them part-time residents, and it’s a rural place, doesn’t mean the residents have any less of a right to know what’s going on with their government, with their taxpayer money,” McIntyre said.

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