Greg Hanscom

Seattle

Executive Director and Publisher at High Country News

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Articles

The people who care about the West

2 weeks ago | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

First, a heartfelt thank-you to all who have contributed to our spring fund drive — and a quick nudge to get in on the action if you haven’t done so already! In a year when journalism is under attack and an administration in Washington is spreading chaos, your notes and contributions renew our sense of purpose. We’ve said it before, but it’s absolutely true: The West has never needed High Country News more.
The people supporting our work

1 month ago | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

These are dizzying times. The Trump administration is clear-cutting the agencies that oversee our beloved national parks and forests and rangelands and refuges — the public lands that make up half of the Western U.S. At the same time, it has frozen funds for conservation and restoration work on private and tribal lands, as well as for clean energy and climate adaptation projects.
After 35 years, farewell to an indefatigable art director

2 months ago | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

In the past three and a half decades, a lot of names have appeared on the High Country News masthead: three publishers, five or six chief editors, a few dozen assistant editors and staff writers and something like 200 interns and fellows. But in all that time, HCN has had only one art director.
High Country News: Telling environmental, ecological and Indigenous community stories of the Western United States - Editor and Publisher

2 months ago | editorandpublisher.com | Greg Hanscom |Bob Miller

Posted Tuesday, February 18, 2025 12:00 am We built our name on environmental reporting. In the last seven years, we have really embraced Indigenous Affairs reporting. We were among the first non-native publications in the country to create a desk with a team of journalists specifically dedicated to issues of concern to Native communities.” High Country News has told the environmental and ecological stories of the Western United States for more than 50 years. In so doing, the publication has...
What are you reading?

Feb 1, 2025 | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

In my work as executive director of High Country News, I get to travel around the West, visiting with the remarkable people who are the backbone of this institution — the readers and supporters who have kept HCN going for an amazing 55 years. Lately, the conversation has often turned to our news consumption habits. Many people have told me that, after a year of obsessing over the election and the polls and all the bumps and tremors along the way, they’re done.
Can we find common ground?

Jan 1, 2025 | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

In the days after the November election, I sent out a raft of emails to friends and family and readers across the country. It was my way of making sense of what had just happened and trying to sort out HCN’s role in the coming year. Some of my thoughts appeared in this column in December.
Finding common ground in divisive times

Dec 1, 2024 | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

By the time you read this, a month will have passed since the 2024 election. We all watched as the electoral maps slowly filled up with red across the West, while blue flowed down the coast and pooled in Colorado and New Mexico. Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidential race; the long-predicted “red wave” had finally arrived. But Westerners understand that the red-and-blue splotches mask a much more nuanced human reality.
Remembering a remarkable environmental journalist

Nov 1, 2024 | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

Retired California TV reporter Celeste Durant remembers Bob Jones as the tireless researcher who sat nearby in the LA Times newsroom in the early 1970s, and became a lifelong friend. “This was at the height of (Publisher) Otis Chandler wanting to make the LA Times a world-class newspaper,” Durant said. “He was hiring really talented people and giving them free rein to write in-depth stories.”Jones was one of those talented people.
Honest talk about conservation

Oct 1, 2024 | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

On a Saturday evening in September, close to 100 people filed into the Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia, Colorado, HCN’s longtime hometown. Our new director of philanthropy, Eric Lane, compared it to a family reunion.
HCN donors make the ink flow

Sep 1, 2024 | hcn.org | Greg Hanscom

You may have noticed a few changes in High Country News recently, including in the pages where we thank the folks who donate to support our journalism. For years, we listed those who made the largest donations first, and then worked our way down. This is a fairly common approach for nonprofits, but it never felt quite right to us. The fact is that fully 75% of HCN’s revenue comes directly from our readers.