| Founded | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Philip Swift |
| Headquarters location | 200 Lindbergh Dr, Gypsum, CO 81637 |
| Owner(s) | Ogden Newspapers |
| Official website | swiftcom |
Swift Communications Inc. is an American digital marketing and newspaper publishing company based in Carson City, Nevada. Swift's primary markets are resort town tabloid newspapers and websites as well as agricultural publications. Swift Communications has been noted for "being outside of the mainstream"[1] and "drawing national attention inside the industry"[2] for disabling commenting and implementing paywalls on most of its online newspaper's websites.[1][3] Many of Swift's newspapers are heavily composed of paid advertorial "sponsored content".
Swift Newspapers was founded by Philip Swift in 1975. Swift, a former executive at the Scripps League of Newspapers, exchanged his equity interests in the company for ownership of two daily newspapers. After dozens of acquisitions and mergers over the years, Swift amassed a large number of print publications and in 1991 the company began concentrating on the resort sector by launching Tahoe.com and Reno.com. In 2006, the company changed their name to Swift Communications.[4] Swift also prints advertorials, catalogs, realtor magazines and phone book advertising.[5]
In November 2009 Bob Berwyn, a journalist for the Summit Daily News (SDN), wrote a column which criticized the marketing practices of Vail Resorts, one of the paper's largest advertisers. He left the SDN shortly after the writing the article for reasons unrelated to the column. This action was widely derided in the Colorado media.[6][7]
"It's unfortunate but, especially in this economy, some advertisers feel like they can flex their muscles when there's commentary that they don't like," says Ed Otte of the Colorado Press Association. "Newspapers need to withstand these kinds of threats."[8]
In May, 2011 after gathering analytics, metrics and revenue data on their commenting platform investment, Swift reviewed the data and decided to remove the user-generated content (UGC) platform Pluck from all online newspapers owned by Swift Communications. The ability for readers to leave comments about articles was removed. Editors with Swift felt the inability of their content management software to restrict comments they did not approve of was impacting newsroom productivity and civil community conversation.[9][10][11]
Anthony Collebrusco from the Digital News Test Kitchen at CU-Boulder's School of Journalism & Mass Communication which is involved in researching a viable means of limiting the pseudonymity and unconditional free speech of commenters on Swift's websites paraphrased Swift's policy as:
"Executives at Swift concluded that resources should not be invested in comments — and therefore there is no rush to reinstate user comments — unless they can be made to generate revenue."[1]
In Fall of 2011, the Aspen Times re-enabled onymous commenting for users with an active Facebook account.[2]
Swift Communications has been accused of stifling competition and setting artificially inflated ad rates by consolidating and closing small-town newspapers.[12] Steve Lipsher, former editor of the Summit Daily News said in 2008 that "If you're an advertiser in places like Summit County, they're the only game in town" [13] and in 2009, Swift-owned newspapers had 90% market share in Eagle County.[14] Swift has also been criticized for over-charging for obituary listings.[15]
On December 31, 2021, Swift Communications was acquired by Ogden Newspapers, a Wheeling, West Virginia-based publisher of daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, and shoppers guides throughout 18 states.[16]
In late 2008, Colorado Mountain News Media, a subsidiary of Swift, reduced their staff by 20% through attrition, retirement & layoffs, shuttering numerous small town papers.[20] Swift has consolidated many newspapers and closed many others:[14][21][22][23][24]