Tuesday: Next Meeting of Friends of Albuquerque Tribune

From Friends of the Albuquerque Tribune: FOAT, Inc. preparing to bring out The Albuquerque Trial Balloon with a readership survey and articles by Tribune columnists. Volunteer journalists invited to meeting Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 7:00 PM at UNM Law School.

At its regular meeting yesterday, the Board of Directors of Friends of the Albuquerque Tribune, Inc. decided to publish a print newspaper, in broadsheet form, as the forerunner for a projected on-line daily. The paper, to be called “The Albuquerque TRIalBallooN”, will be mirrored on FOAT’s website. Several locally-based columnists from the Albuquerque Tribune have agreed to provide articles for the first issue, which will also contain an opinion survey of potential readers/subscribers to the forthcoming on-line paper.

The board has received sufficient funds to cover the production cost of the first issue, and eagerly looks forward to further financial support from the public in central New Mexico. Future issues will contain more local, state, national, and international news and will provide an extensive forum for community input.

There is much work to be done, and the FOAT, Inc. Board urges everyone who can help, especially experienced journalists, and all citizens concerned with keeping the Tribune tradition going, to come to the next public meeting this coming Tuesday, March 18th, at 7:00 PM in Room 2405 of the University of New Mexico School of Law.The School is located on Stanford Drive NE at Mountain Road. To get and keep informed, send an email message to SaveAbqTrib-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

86 years ago when the Albuquerque Tribune began publishing as a daily newspaper, this mission statement was put in place: “The mission of the Albuquerque Tribune is to inform the community. Our allegiance is to the reader. Our commitment is to the truth. Our job is to question. Our ambition is to provide a forum through which this city becomes a better place to live.”

Current board members: Rosamund Evans President, Marvin Gladstone Vice President/Treasurer, David Barbour Secretary, Ted Cloak, J.W. Madison, Jack Pickering, Dennis Herrick, Joe Sackett