Nevada Press Association The best in Nevada journalism since 1924
This is the last in a series on newer members of the Nevada Press Association. You may read other articles in the series by scrolling through the stories here.
Know your audience.
That’s good advice in most endeavors, and Rachel Dahl took it to heart in creating The Fallon Post as an online news source and then adding a print edition to satisfy readers.
Dahl, who is a former community development director for Fallon and was elected twice to the city council, was working for the federal Small Business Administration three years ago when she got the notion.
“Why don’t we start a newspaper? So here we are,” says Dahl. “Yeah, we wanted print, but I didn’t really think that was realistic.”
Fallon has been a two-newspaper town off and on through the years, a history reflected in the full name of the Lahontan Valley News & Fallon Eagle Standard, which is owned by Pacific Publishing and operated by Nevada News Group.
A competitor, The Fallon Star Press, was started in 2004 by the Reno Gazette-Journal with Anne Pershing at the helm, but ceased as a separate publication a decade later.
Pershing, who died in 2016, had previously run the LVN and was a friend and mentor to Dahl. Her influence is apparent in The Fallon Post, including the newspaper’s flag, which is reminiscent of the Star Press’s logo but displays an owl instead of an eagle.
The owl’s symbolism as a wise messenger fit Dahl’s vision for the newspaper. Her book-club-member friends helped choose the name.
Dahl, who grew up in Fallon and holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Nevada, Reno, wanted to make sure her hometown’s identity didn’t fade away.
“I feel like the whole reason we started the newspaper is because we were losing our sense of community,” she says. “Nobody would go to a public meeting. I mean, you would have county commission meetings and there’d be one person in the room, and it was staff, because they had to be there.
“No participation. People really didn’t know what was going on — and they didn’t care. You don’t have anyone to run for office, because nobody ever goes to meetings so they have no idea. So, ugh, all those things. Your community just is slowly disintegrating.”
The Post is born
The online version of The Fallon Post was born Jan. 1, 2019, and townspeople responded by sending donations and volunteering to help. “When are you going to print?” they would ask.
The first print edition was a back-to-school special section, printed in Carson City, followed by another and another. They were selling advertising and making some money.
Then COVID hit. During the pandemic, the Post reverted to publishing online-only, but by November 2020 readers were again requesting print copies.
Fallon residents were missing that sense of community.
Eventually, Dahl leased a Konica Minolta commercial printer they call “Becky.” She and associate editor Leanna Lehman taught themselves InDesign, and they began distributing copies on 12×18 white 50-pound stock.
She’s a little disappointed she can’t use 13×19 newsprint in the printer. “I didn’t want it to look like a newsletter,” she says. “But everyone else loves it. They tell me it’s the perfect size. The community loves it.”
The Post is up to 800 weekly circulation, offering both print and online subscriptions, and has obtained a periodicals mailing permit en route to seeking public-notice advertising.
Veteran journalist Robert Perea, who has the Fernley Reporter online site, also has joined the team. And Dahl recently became a guest host on the Nevada Newsmakers show.
In a community with a long history of newspapers, readers are embracing the Post. “I kept working on the print model, because so many people in Fallon still want to hold their paper,” she says.