Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by: Viewers Like You >> Nash: This week on New Mexico in Focus, a new push for deeper state investment in restoring and stewarding our rivers.

>> Roper: Any time we are doing good work on the ground and it has a community benefit, it has an economic benefit, and we do that with like a pretty lean state government.

I think that is what people like to see.

>> Nash: And a new contract makes the Lobo football coach the highest paid public employee in state history.

New Mexico in Focus starts now >> Nash: Thanks for joining us this week I'm Nash Jones.

New Mexico in Focus is just one piece of a local news ecosystem across the state.

And for the first time, thanks to new research and a mapping project, we have a better sense of that ecosystem's boundaries and the challenges and opportunities that exist within it.

Later this hour, we sit down with three of the people who put this study together to hear about what they found and what it means for journalists like us and news consumers like you.

Then, after the most success season in recent memory, the University of New Mexico's first year football coach has netted himself a contract extension and a hefty raise.

Senior Producer Lou DiVizo, learns the details of Jason Eck's future with the Lobos from Albuquerque, Journal Sports reporter Sean Reider.

From the football field to the film department, will welcome a group of UNM student filmmakers to the show to hear about their short documentary on a Latino organization promoting veganism among Mexican and Mexican-American communities.

But we begin the show with a conversation about river restoration and stewardship.

Correspondent Elizabeth Miller returns to in Focus tonight to help us understand why the state Environment Department is readying to ask lawmakers for 30 times more funding for this work.

Elizabeth is joined by Dan Roper, advocate from the nonprofit Trout Unlimited, to wade through the policy implications.

Also at the table is filmmaker Rene Roberts, who produced a recent docu series called Thinking Like Water about the importance of caring for our rivers.

Here's Elizabeth.

>> Miller: Waterways and wetlands in New Mexico have changed over the recent centuries, as settlers arrived and built roads and grazed cattle.

Rene, you spent several years filming a series of documentaries on how streams and wetlands have been damaged, and some solutions for fixing them to start.

What did you learn about the problems facing waterways?

>> Roberts: Well, I think that they've been a long time coming, and I think that even now, in our everyday present time, there's so many things that are also happening, like roads and, how we have a lot of parking lots and everything really up from the headwaters all the way down to the very lowest valley with maybe parking lots that were only using 10% of so, you know, I learned a lot.

And I also learned that there's a lot of people that are involved in, dealing with those degradation and those challenges, and that we need a lot more people to be curious and involved.

>> Miller: Can you talk us through the basics of A Broken Creek?

>> Roberts: Sure.

So Broken Creek, we normally think of as a gully.

And what has happened is that it's lost connection to its floodplain.

And so we see this in a lot of places all over New Mexico and really all over the world.

Floods become more severe.

The landscape can't handle the intensity.

And all the vegetation that's in the upper uplands really dries out.

And this down cutting keeps happening.

And what ultimately happens is a water table drops and it could look like this.

They could look like this.

They could also look like this.

And so the documentary really follows someone named Bill Zee Dike.

And he got curious about how could we deal with this, degradation, broken creeks.

And a lot of times you'll hear that called stream incision.

It's an incised waterway.

>> Miller: Okay.

And so why did these why did these changes matter for issues like the water supply, like water quality, like wildfires?

>> Roper: I can take this one.

It's a great question, Elizabeth.

And you know, I think what we see is so many of our streams are impaired and they are not functioning like they used to.

We don't get the whole host of ecosystem benefits that we once did.

Right.

We don't get the groundwater recharge.

We don't get the good healthy wetland and repairing habitat that's so good for fish and wildlife and sort of stores carbon and helps with, you know, water retention, holding water on the landscape.

We see, so often in like big monsoon events, the water just it, it comes down fast and it, and it leaves fast.

Right.

And so we don't, we don't give that water a chance to, to soak in, to recharge and to alleviate some of that downstream flooding concern.

And so, I'm trying to think of your original question, but, you know, we see this degradation, degradation all over the place.

I think, you know, people of my generation, this is just what the landscapes look like for about as long as we can remember.

Right?

And so in many places, you know, until you, until you learn from people like Bill or from people that do this work, you don't even, quite realize the extent to which things have been impaired over time.

>> Miller: Right, and once you know what to look for, you sort of see it all over the place and like, the damage feels really raw.

And those those headwater streams are like our upland reservoirs, right?

Like that's, that's cold water storage that's going to run late into the summer months after the snow has melted out, if it has a chance to linger up there.

And so one of the things that, one of the other clips we wanted to show was about your, the probably unique problem of head cap ism.

And, you know, what happens is those start to, to migrate upstream.

>> Roberts: So, so head pads are actually the most degradation segregating, feature in our landscape.

So they're like a nickpoint.

And so you see the elevation drop.

So here's an example up in a high alpine area.

And here's another example in a meadow.

And so you can see right there where the grass is starting to die.

That will work its way all the way up the meadow.

And that's a problem with head cuts as they migrate upstream.

And so they actually become a gully.

And in this particular spot, this one moved like 30ft in three years.

And here's one in Savoy Canyon, and this one moved about 50 or 60ft.

And here we see it being arrested with rocks.

And probably what we call is an evil.

>> Miller: So there are there are some solutions for reining in some of these problems.

And how does what's happening in the headwaters in these high mountain streams, how does that make a difference downstream?

In larger river systems, like the places we think about as our drinking water supply.

>> Roper: I mean, I think when we're talking about watershed health, in our watersheds, the important thing is it's all connected, right?

So the headwaters are connected to the main stem.

The uplands are connected to the valley bottoms.

And, you know, one of the best analogies I've ever heard about, you know, our higher elevation, landscapes in New Mexico is they if they're functioning well, they are a big sponge, and they collect water, whether it's snow or, you know, rain.

And they hold it and they release it slowly over time when they're functioning well.

Right.

And so that is, I mean, the water that falls in the mountains, that's water for asacias It's water for farms and ranches.

You know, really anyone who irrigates from from the surface, they're getting their, their water from rivers and streams, just like the city of Albuquerque is.

>> Miller: So can you tell us a little bit about the history of funding for this work in New Mexico and what's recently changed?

>> Roper: Yeah.

So that is, I think, a really important question.

So, a lot has changed, but we are, you know, coming from a place where the state has historically, historically underinvested in these things, but we're in a much better place today.

So, you know, one of the programs, that we advocate for is the River Stewardship Program.

It's a grant program for restoring river streams and wetlands.

The very places featured in Rene's films, done by many of the groups.

You know, many of the groups doing the work in Rene's films are also, receiving funding from this program.

But it's really the only program in the state that does just this kind of work.

And it's been around for maybe 15 or so years.

I think in a typical year, in the early years, they'd have about a million and a half dollars to spend across the state.

And a lot of times, these projects, just one project can be a quarter of $1 million, $1 million.

So you can imagine that money didn't go very far.

You fast forward to today and, you know, thanks to the leadership at our environment department and the Lujan Grisham administration, there's a $50 million budget ask, just for this program, in the upcoming legislative session.

And so we are seeing -- lawmakers and legislators begin to think, bigger, about the importance of this kind of work.

>> Miller: Okay.

So that's a like -- a jump from 1 to 2 million to 50 million.

And the request for the New Mexico Environment Department stream stewardship program.

>> Roper: Yeah, for the River stewardship program, which is just one, you know, one of the important programs in the state that does this kind of work.

But the reason I highlight it is that this is the only kind of work you can do with that program, right?

You're restoring river streams and wetlands, with really two goals.

One is to improve water quality.

So clean water and the other is to improve, river health.

And and again, that starts in the uplands and works its way down.

>> Miller: Great, great.

So, Renee, what are some of the possible solutions you have kind of a video.

Toolbox.

>> Roberts: Yeah.

So when we think about these degraded lands and here's one example of a degraded land right in the middle of the meadow, we have what we call a tool kit or toolbox.

So these are low tech low risk kind of restoration.

And this is just going to cycle through a lot of different, structures.

And it really depends on the landscape, because you're really designing and reading the landscape to know what's going to work here.

And then you're going to come back, you're going to see how it's doing and then modify it if as needed.

>> Miller: And a lot of this is work like done by hand with materials that are available on the landscape.

>> Roberts: Yes, and the ideally on site.

Sometimes you do have to bring materials in.

So in the the five part docu - series, here's kind of the toolbox that we came up with.

And we look at each one of those tools, in practice and kind of explain it in an easy to understand way so that people can kind of get a little bit more curious about water, watching what's happening around them, and also kind of thinking a little bit more about water.

>> Miller: And the goal is kind of to get water to slow down and spread out and to stop those processes, like the head cuts that we were talking about.

>> Roberts: Yes, so linger a little bit longer.

None of it actually impedes the water permanently.

It just can help maybe take off the peak of a flood, help the vegetation.

So really, what you want is to just really, give more support to the living system that's already there.

And so the rocks and the wood and whatever else, whatever else are using over time is replaced by the vegetation, to do the work that it was already doing naturally before.

We recently stressed it a little bit longer.

>> Roper: You know, one thing I would say that I think is really cool about the work you featured in the film, Renee, is just how accessible it is to people.

So, I mean, we often call it low tech or process based restoration, where once you understand kind of the fundamentals and you have some experience like, you know, reading the landscape, which I think is what, you know, if you watch the films, that's what Bill goes out and does.

Or I think there's a segment where he says he likes to walk the land 50 times before he says, well, this is what we should do here.

But, the techniques themselves are relatively low cost.

You know, landowners can do them.

You know, really anyone, once you're kind of trained in this work, you can go out and and start to do some of this work, and we don't have to I mean, we have to invest a lot if we want to have, make a difference at scale.

Right.

But on, acre of land, you can do a lot with a little.

>> Miller: Alright, and, like, one person can go out and put some rocks in a stream, like start altering the flow of that stream in ways that could, like, slow it down -- Yeah.

Restore some of these different habitat characteristics we're looking for.

>> Roberts: Yeah, and I would say maybe before being in the middle of a stream is maybe to think about the uplands, because when you're in a watershed, no matter where you're standing, you're in a watershed.

And sometimes it's happening in the bottom of that creek is actually because of things that are happening all around it, whether there's roads or other things that have been, you know, been placed or altered there.

So a lot of the work sometimes is not actually happening in the stream bed, where we really like contractors and, and other people to have a little bit more idea about the stream dynamics.

But everything up from there really affects it.

And so there's all kinds of different things to that you can do, Medalinas and >> Roper: One rock dance, >> Roberts: One rock dance.

>> Roper: So simple.

You know, you're piling up rocks to slow water, to spread it out to, you know, reduce erosion, to raise water tables.

And, you know, kind of speaking about, when we talk about our streams, we often think about the place as flowing with water.

You know, so many of our streams are ephemeral and they're emitant, some of the projects in the film, you know, show these, these streams, you know, gushing with water, these beautiful streams that that's in the springtime or, you know, early summer.

They're likely to go dry for a while, right?

And so a lot of the work that can really make a difference is in those ephemeral, intermittent channels.

You don't have to, you know, be savvy enough to think about stream hydraulics in a, you know, a big stream or river system.

You can do that, that work on those smaller tributaries.

But again, you know, it's all connected.

And so that work is really important.

>> Roberts: That's very true.

And I think another thing is that snowpack, we're getting so much less of it and it's coming off so much earlier.

And so that's where a lot of these structures are so important, because they have it hanging around just a little bit longer.

That helps migratory birds.

It helps the asacias.

It's just, you know, on all levels makes a difference.

>> Miller: Yeah, great, and the Valle Vidal is one of the places that has seen a lot of this work over the years, what are some of the differences that stream restoration has made on that landscape?

>> Roberts: Yeah.

So, here we're looking at the ring place meadow up in Valle Vidal, and you can almost see the little rock structures down there if you look at where it's meandering.

And here we had the Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, and they are working on structures that were done several years before.

So you can see that the water is spreading from where they're putting a one rock dam in, and it's continuing to make a difference.

And so each of these structures will be slowing water down.

And then they kind of work in tandem across a whole stretch.

So two years later we can see that the sedge and riparian species are increasing.

This is Bill the morning after the work.

And here it is two years later.

You see much more sedges and wetland plants.

That was an old stove that we weren't able to move out.

But you can tell that right there.

We have a structure and it's already starting to have vegetation grow over it.

And so over time, as I was mentioning before, the living systems begin to do the work of slowing the water down.

>> Miller: And Trout Unlimited has done a lot of work in Valle Vidal as well.

Right?

>> Roper: Yeah, we've been a partner with the Forest Service and really to many other groups to name New Mexico Game and Fish -- Albuquerque Wildlife Federation.

It is, you know, one of our biggest, I think, success stories about really transforming the landscape and that landscape today has one of the largest, the largest population of native Rio Grande cutthroat trout, which is our state fish, of anywhere in the state.

And so, you know that those fish would not thrive there without good, good habitat.

Right.

Good stream habitat, good riparian habitat, you know, water that stays on the landscape longer.

There's wetlands coming back and and it's not just about the fish.

It's it's about all of the wildlife in the Valle Vidal And it is really one of the big success stories.

>> Miller: That's great.

So what can we infer from the dramatic increase in funding the New Mexico and Environment Department has made for this kind of work about the the value of the track record that it's proven?

>> Roper: Yeah.

Well, I think one of the things that, legislators like about the program is it puts money directly on the ground.

Right?

So it is a grant program, it doesn't grow state government.

There's a small team that administers that funding, and it's it's awarded to entities across the state.

So, water districts, tribes, nonprofits, municipalities, and most of that money goes to, New Mexico businesses, New Mexico contractors, youth corps.

So I think any time we are doing good work on the ground and it has a community benefit, it has an economic benefit.

And we do that with like a pretty lean state government.

I think that is what people like to see.

And so I think we're seeing a renewed emphasis on on this program for those reasons.

And then also, of course, I'll just say really briefly, we have really significant water challenges in our state, drought, warming climate.

And all of that means we need to really invest in those, those tools and strategies that make us more resilient.

>> Miller: Yeah, absolutely.

And if we do, if this funding request did, did come through and there's this exponential growth in funding for this kind of work, what could people expect to see change on the ground?

>> Roper: Yeah, well, I think you'll see more good work happening in more places.

In some communities, you'll meet someone who says, yeah, I'm now doing restoration work for a living.

Or I'm working like, I'm out on this project, doing this work right in someone's backyard.

We see projects, you know, right in communities like Aztec and Silver City and Chama and Las Vegas.

As well as projects, you know, out -- kind of higher in the watersheds.

We see a lot of work, in burn scars and in watersheds impacted by wildfire.

But we do see those projects, you know, right and right on the river and stream, right in the community.

And so I think, you know, we like the 50 million.

It's that would be a big deal of that money when it all gets spent, it wants.

But, you know, over the next 4 or 5 years would be great to see that money getting out and just making a difference in more places.

>> Miller: Great, great.

Dan, Renee, thank you both for taking some time.

>> Roberts: Thank you so much for us here.

>> Roper: Yeah.

Thank you.

>> Reider: Nine and three in a coach's first year.

It's just not something that happens here a lot.

Nine and three is just something in general that doesn't happen in this program.

A whole lot.

And there was a lot of angst to a certain degree about whether or not Eck would would stay after one year and all that as well.

And part of that was because these crew were kind of coaching beyond the job in a lot of respects, and he's viewed as an attractive candidate, not just because of the on field success, but because of his off field, you know, personalities, gregarious guy.

You know, the thing that fans always say that we kind of always say is a guy you like to have a beer with and all that.

That's really easy for a program to kind of get behind.

>> Nash: We'll talk Lobo football and a massive new contract for Coach Ek with the Albuquerque Journal.

Sean Reider in about 25 minutes.

And thanks again to Elizabeth Miller and her guests.

About a third of New Mexico is a news desert.

That's according to the 2025 New Mexico Local News Ecosystem Report.

The study includes an interactive map that shows where all the outlets are, how they deliver the news, how often, what language they write in, how they keep their lights on, and the impact that they have on the community.

Joining us now are the authors, UNM Journalism Professor of Practice and regular New Mexico in Focus contributor Gwyenth Doland and journalism consultant Michael Marcotte, as well as Rashad Mahmood, the Executive Director of the New Mexico Local News Fund, which commissioned the study.

Thank you all for joining us on New Mexico in Focus.

So this is a first of its kind mapping project for New Mexico.

Rashad, what were the goals of the research?

>> Mahmood: Sure.

The research here was modeled on efforts that have been undertaken in other states before.

Colorado, Minnesota, Montana.

Just a few examples where organizations looking to support local news in those areas said, hey, you know, if we want to do a good job supporting local news in the areas we support, we need to have a better fine grained understanding.

And so we said, we had done a little bit of work when the New Mexico local news fund first got started, but we decided we need to do a really big, comprehensive study, and we were so glad that Mike and Gwyneth could step up and help run that effort.

>> Nash: And it's kind of a it's kind of a 2 in 1.

You looked at news producers, the outlets themselves, as well as the folks consuming that news.

Let's start with producers.

Mike, where are the local outlets in New Mexico?

>> Marcotte: Mostly in Albuquerque.

By and large, that was one of our great findings.

Troubling findings is that we are all congregated largely in the Albuquerque metro area.

We have 139 news outlets around the state.

We have four counties with no news outlets based there at all.

We have eight counties with one news outlet based there.

>> Nash: and that's out of 33 counties in New Mexico.

>> Marcotte: Yes.

Out of 33 counties in New Mexico.

So, you know, 30,000ft view looks like a lot of lot happening in Albuquerque, serving very underserved areas far away from Albuquerque.

>> Nash: And you may have already answered this question by talking about the counties that have none, but you unearths, that a third of the state is a news desert.

Can you talk about what a news desert is?

What counts.

>> Marcotte: Yeah.

Basically, a news desert is where nobody in that county is going out covering the news and delivering the news to the people of that county.

Okay.

Now, people in news deserts, may be getting television out of Albuquerque, but how?

Well is that serving their local community needs?

Right.

So a news desert is basically something that's emerging.

It's approaching all over the country.

And as newspapers close and other news outlets as well, more and more, there's a lack of journalists on the ground, you know, digging up the facts and reporting out to the people in that community about the information they need to govern that community.

>> Nash: And you also surveyed the folks who are reading, watching, listening to the news and conducted some focus groups, if I understand correctly.

Gwyneth, what are New Mexicans looking for from their local news outlets?

>> Gwyneth: They want news about where they live.

So they want the same kind of stuff that we all want.

They want to know if it's going to rain or snow today.

They want to know if the traffic is really bad.

They want to know what's fun going on this weekend.

But they also told us, I mean, we think of those things as the kind of lighter side of news.

But they said to us, I want to know what's going on in my school board.

I heard something about the county commission, and and there's something crooked going on.

And I want to know what it is.

I want to know what is happening in my local government.

And as we found so many county commissions, village councils, no one is going to that meeting and reporting it.

And people do want that.

>> Nash: Okay.

And Mike, what what do the media outlets look like?

What are they reporting on?

How big are they?

What how do they function?

>> Marcotte: Right.

Well, interestingly, print is still the leading, platform distributing news in the state, right behind that, though, are digital outlets and digital in our study includes print outlets and maybe other outlets who predominantly reach most of their audience by digital means.

So it's the fastest growing, platform.

And then, of course, we have radio stations, we have TV stations and, what I would say is that the, the, the big picture is everybody's trying to get into the digital space.

Some are doing it better than others.

>> Nash: If I recall, right.

You had one category that maybe I'm not using the right word, but it's like multimedia multi-platform where folks where they weren't getting more than half of their, consumers through one particular media.

>> Marcotte: Right, right.

Any outlet that is basically using more than one platform but doesn't achieve 50% of its audience on any one of those platforms we called multi-platform.

Okay.

KOB-TV, interestingly, is a multi-platform organization according to what they told us on the survey, >> Mahmood: wasn't the journal so or one of the big newspapers, I believe.

>> Marcotte: The Journal, tipped into what we now call a digital outlet because 50% or more of its audience is, produced on digital platforms.

So interesting.

Interestingly, your competitor KOB-TV is getting a lot of people coming to their apps and their website, to, to consume their news.

>> Nash: Any sense of whether that is reflective of what we're seeing nationally is that unique to New Mexico, that picture that you just painted?

>> Marcotte: No.

Everybody's rushing into the digital space as fast as they can, because that's where the audience is >> Nash: and how complete of a picture is.

What you all were able to put together.

Any sense of that?

>> Gwyneth: We think it's pretty complete.

When we started this, Mike and Rishad and I were like, dude, we can do this right now.

Give me a cocktail napkin.

I can write down every single one of these.

And we were surprised by some of the stuff that we found things in remote parts of New Mexico that we didn't know anything about.

Rio Trauma Reporter.

Up there, in the northwest part of the state.

Didn't know about that, but somebody ripped it off and brought it to me, and we looked them up.

We found a lot of, exciting points of light out there.

We found, and we documented a lot of innovation, which I think is, is something special about new Mexico, the number of nonprofit, entrepreneurial startup, little nonprofit things and public media.

We have more than that.

Yeah, more than a lot of other states.

>> Nash: Yeah, I sat local news and heard myself.

I was also surprised there were outlets.

I'd never heard of that I'm excited to check out.

As I explored the map, Rashad budgetary issues also stood out for the news outlets, I imagine people think of subscriptions as a really significant revenue source, especially for newspapers.

But you all found not only made up about 10% on average, for revenue of newspapers.

Where is the money coming from that supporting local news?

>> Mahmood: You know, obviously it varies by type of news organization.

You know, for the print newspapers still the, you know, the print ad revenue is still a huge component of their income.

And so, you know, part of what I see, our mission at the New Mexico Local News Fund, and with press for New Mexico is to sort of help some of these existing news outlets transition to more sustainable revenue sources, get more from the digital side.

You know, like, you know, they all have websites, they have subscription models.

But as you said, it's a very small percentage of your revenue.

And so the question going forward is, as the print, you know, revenue continues to decline, how are we still going to have strong local news sources in smaller rural communities >> Nash: and so existing or previous revenue sources are declining?

Definitely.

What makes up a sustainable revenue source?

>> Mahmood: Again, it's going to vary a lot by outlet.

But, you know, we support both nonprofit and for profit news outlets with our work.

And we encourage as diverse a revenue mix as possible.

Even for profit news outlets of all kinds now are either partnering with nonprofits to get support for some of, like that, accountability journalism or investigative journalism.

People are holding events, community events as fundraisers.

People are there's a Cloudcroft reader is piloting this really innovative, civic leadership program where they're essentially, earning a little revenue and then also helping to educate people about, how they can be sort of active members of the community.

So it's the neat thing about local news is it's local and it looks different all over depending on the community.

And the organization.

>> Nash: and so does their fundraising >> Mahmood: and so does their fundraising.

>> Marcotte: But advertising is really, really in trouble.

You know, and that's the the primary easy money source for most outlets in the state.

And it's a shrinking source.

And we're not seeing those dollars being made up quickly enough or adequately, you know, to replace it.

And we've got to say, philanthropy right now, at least in this transition, is a really important piece.

And it's why we see things like the the Albuquerque Journal, the Santa Fe New Mexican starting foundations.

Okay.

So they can bring in philanthropy, you know, through a nonprofit entity, you know, to help support the news.

>> Nash: And so they can balance being both for profit at that point, Gwyneth, this statement from the report really stood out to me.

It said people aren't giving up on news.

They're asking for it to work better for them.

What are some of the key gaps between what you found?

News consumers wanted and what the outlets are actually delivering?

>> Gwyneth: Yeah, a lot of it is what we were just talking about.

People love fancy apps, right?

They love getting the Wordle on their phone.

They love having cooking and just parking the iPad right there and cooking from it in the kitchen.

They love getting alerts on their watches.

All of the bells and whistles that you get from ESPN and or that you get from Fox News or whatever, right?

But on the local level, they don't have the teams massive teams required and the money to invest in fancy tech like that.

So they trust newspapers, right?

They trust small town newspapers, big town newspapers.

They know those people.

They, you know, they trust those folks.

But then that product isn't delivered the way they want it, right?

So there's a gap between the information they want and the the way they're getting it.

Also, the cuts that we've seen in newsrooms have cut a lot of things that people miss.

They miss profiles, they miss happy stories, they miss events, they miss arts coverage and things like that.

But when your newsroom shrinks, you're thinking to yourself, well, we've got to keep city council, you know, we've got to keep doing City hall.

And then I guess we let the arts go.

And maybe we're not doing as much sports or whatever >> Nash: because people said they wanted City hall.

So somebody prioritizing that great.

Right.

They're responding to what their community wants.

But that might not be all that they want.

And yet they can't be everywhere.

>> Gwyneth: So the challenge is to give people things that they need and that they want.

And we see outlets like the New York Times doing that really well, but they have all of the assets they could possibly.

>> Nash: It's about as giant as it gets >> Gwyneth: to do that.

Right.

So the challenge is how can we give people on a local level, things that give them pleasure and help them contribute meaningfully to their community?

>> Nash: So what's the answer?

Is that issue fixable?

>> Gwyneth: I think it is fixable.

You know, I was looking at Nieman Lab this morning and there was a really painful quote in one of their predictions for 2026.

The harsh truth is that taken in isolation, there is likely no viable economic model for decent news provision in economically struggling cities or rural areas here.

That's hard to hear because that's what we're pointing at.

And and I think that feels true.

The vast majority of people we surveyed said they have not paid for news, and they're not really interested in paying for what their options are now.

So something has to change.

But I think that's definitely possible.

We're also looking at, an increasing number of sort of hub and spoke models where maybe nonprofits or public media are leading the way and connecting to smaller communities and, and moving news back and forth.

So not just beaming news out of the city into this news desert, but getting news from that news desert, putting it back into the city.

And, I think that may be something that we can do to move forward >> Nash: is the answer to that digital divide.

Simply more money?

>> Gwyneth: More money is a lot of it, but it's on every single one of us to pay for the news that we need and we want.

And I challenge everyone to ask themselves how much they have paid for news this past year.

You're adding up your tax dollars right now.

How much did you spend on streaming video services, and how much did you spend on news?

If you are watching it, reading it, listening to it, you need to pay for it.

>> Nash: Right, Rashad, you write in the report that you invite readers to see the findings more than just an analysis, but as a call to action, it sounds like what you just said Gwyneth was very much a call to action.

But what do you hope, Rashad, people do with this information?

Do with the map?

>> Mahmood: There's a few different layers to it.

One is, you know, Pew has done surveys nationally about, you know, asking people, hey, how healthy do you think the economics of your local news outlet, your local newspaper is?

And unfortunately, there's a pretty big disconnect between people's perceptions and reality?

Over 50%.

I think it might have even been over 60% of people said, in that survey.

Oh, I my local newspaper is doing great, which is clearly not, you know, reflective of the financial reality.

And so partly it's an education effort.

You know, I really want to help make people more aware that, local news is struggling.

It's worthy of support.

It's deserving of that support.

But then also open eyes to the innovation and solutions that are starting to crop up.

You know, I think a lot of people don't even know nonprofit news outlets exist.

For example, people don't know the New Mexico Local News Fund exists.

They don't know that there is a whole field of philanthropy popping up all over the country, both locally and nationally, to support local news, to try to ensure that rural areas, underserved areas have news.

I mean, for me, the fundamental question is, does every community in New Mexico deserve to have access to high quality local news and information?

And if the answer is yes, then and I think it is, then we need to figure out ways that the equity that, you know, to serve the equitable needs of those communities, just like we support libraries, we support all sorts of other sort of public infrastructure.

In some sense, local news is that infrastructure.

And so, whether that's through private donations to, you know, us or other sort of state wide organizations and then can channel that support to the communities that need it.

Or it's just, as Gwen said, like people in those communities saying, hey, you know, if I want to know what's going on in local government, what's going on in my community, then I'm gonna need to support the institutions that providing it.

Rashad, Gwyneth, Mike, thank you so much for your time and thanks for doing this work and putting this information together for us.

>> Growing up, I as a Mexican, I was really used to tamales, you know, tortillas, all that kind of stuff.

And, you know, I eventually became vegan, you know, at the age of nine, you know, because of the animals and things like that and also the health benefits.

And I kind of saw how it wasn't a common thing in my, you know, community.

Like you mentioned.

And I decided that I wanted to shed light on something that the organization is doing, which is bringing, you know, veganism to the Mexican American community.

>> Nash: a look at that.

Student Doc about vegan Mexican cuisine is in just about ten minutes.

The University of New Mexico has signed head football coach Jason Eck to a new five year contract worth up to $8 million in change.

That works out to an average $1.75 million a year, and makes it the highest paid public employee in state history to learn about Eck, the first year Coaches nine and three Lobos and his Big New Deal Albuquerque Journal sportswriter Sean Reider talked with senior producer Lou DeVizio.

Sean Reider Lobo Football beat writer at the Albuquerque Journal.

Thanks so much for being here.

>> Reider: Thanks for having me on.

>> Lou: Now there's a lot of talk right now about Lobo football right now.

The first postseason appearance since 2016.

Coming up next Friday, the most regular season wins for the program in almost 30 years.

And with all that success, a new contract, big money contract for that guy, Jason Ek.

At least by New Mexico standards.

Now the number going around is $1.75 million a year.

But in reading your story, I know it's a little bit more complicated than that.

Can you break down exactly how that's going to work out?

>> Reider: Yeah.

So he was making 1.15 on his original five year deal.

And that increased by 50 K in two different, you know, this the contract is done for like three elements of base compensation and all that as well.

So the two of those elements increased by 50 K. Okay.

Media participation was one of the clauses and all that as well, to give him a 100 K increase on a year to year basis.

Same deal for this one.

It just starts at 1.55.

So a 400 K raise from the first contract year of his original contract and just keeps going up.

So it'll average 1.75 million over the life of the contract.

But it really kind of just escalates over through the life of it.

>> Lou: Okay.

Thanks.

Now just to put that into context a little bit, if Eck succeeds and reaches some of the incentives that are built in to, he'd be the highest paid public employee in the state, in the history of New Mexico.

How is the deal been received by the Lobos and people you've talked to in general?

>> Reider: Yeah most fans, from what I know are honestly pretty thrilled with the deal and of respects, you know, nine and three and a and a coach's first year.

It's just not something that happens here a lot.

Nine and three is just something in general that doesn't happen this program a whole lot.

And there was a lot of angst to a certain degree about whether or not Eck would stay after one year and all that as well.

And part of that was because his crew were kind of coaching beyond the job in a lot of respects, and he's viewed as an attractive canadate not just because of the on field success, but because of his off field, you know, personalities, gregarious guy.

You know, the thing that fans always say that we kind of always say is a guy you like to have a beer with and all that.

That's really easy for a program to kind of get behind a lot of respects.

But, that kind of went in hand with this is one of the wilder coaching carousels, that we've seen really since I think 2022.

And I'd say it was wilder than 2022.

You had not only, you know, the kind of landmark jobs and, you know, big destination jobs like LSU and Florida and Penn State, places where the expectation is to win and kind of compete for a national title.

You had all these other jobs like Stanford and Cal and Michigan State that were all opening up.

The one that created a lot of angst was the possibility of the job opening up at Wisconsin.

Obviously, that's ex alma mater.

You know, that's, you know, that is, really that was kind of viewed as the, the job that would be the kind of special opportunity that would pry him away.

I asked Eck, you know, if there was, any jobs that he had, you know, spoken with or reached out to in terms of, you know, had communication with through his representation.

And he said there was only two that his representation really fielded interest with and interest from, I should say.

And, he did not view them as special enough opportunities to really warrant, having a conversation with them on his own.

>> Lou: Okay.

Now, UNM athletics in the past has been burned by coaches signing big contracts, then heading out, leaving for greener pastures.

And then ultimately, taxpayers are left holding the bag.

I'm thinking specifically about former basketball coach Steve Alford.

>> Lou: Were there any safeguards put into Eck's contract to make sure that he either doesn't leave or if he does leave then - the university doesn't have to pay out that money?

>> Reider: Well, yeah.

In terms of like, you know, like the regular, like Fired With Cause stuff and all that as well.

That's all in there for sure.

The buyout, as I kind of mentioned as well, it's 4 million for the first contract year, and then it goes down to 2 million in the second contract year and kind of keeps trickling down, I think 750k in the third year and then 500k in the fourth year and then 200k in the fifth year.

I'm pretty sure that's kind of viewed as, you know, the safeguard in some respects, at least the way that I, kind of, look at it.

>> Lou: What does winning football mean -- to this university?

I know for fans, obviously it's a huge -- deal.

But does the university view spending this kind of money on a coach as a net gain in the long term?

>> Reider: Yeah, I absolutely think so.

You know, coaches and players and administrators, they all say, like, at this point in the game, like, and I think always honestly in the terms of college athletics, football drives the bus.

You can have a winning basketball program, but that doesn't really work financially for a lot of schools in a lot of respects, it's actually work pretty well, at UNM in the past, but football's always been kind of the thing that, you know, that has been can lagging behind too have kind of both at a pretty good level.

I think that would be really important water aspects.

his last round of conference realignment, obviously New Mexico was kind of left out of the group that went to new Pac 12 and all that as well that you know, that kind of stung for fans.

And I think that stung for administrators in a lot of respects to, to get, you know, football really kind of the working plan a lot of respects is, you know, get football and get the athletic department at a good enough level to to point, like in 2030 when that's when the next round of media rights deals are supposed to go back to market.

That's kind of the working plan here to just get everything to a point where, you know, things can be pretty good in that stage.

And I think if this momentum continues then I'm not saying they'll go to like the Big 12 or the Big 10 or anything like that, but certainly they'll be in a much better position than they were the last time that kind of got passed over in conference realignment And, I think that, that helps an administration that helps you an institution a lot of respects.

>> Lou: Okay, yeah.

Those are optimistic and seemingly feasible long term goals in terms of short term successes, things like attendance, how has this winning season and Eck's presence changed that?

>> Reider: Yeah.

Pretty amazingly a lot of respects.

I think it was a 51.8 increase year over year.

Obviously that was aided by the fact that they had the NMSU game here this year.

So, it's unlikely that they'll match that next year even if they do have kind of an excellent season.

But, no, I mean, there were -- one note about the new contract is that, he doesn't have -- you know, he doesn't have incentives tied to attendance like in his -- tied to attendance like he did in his first contract.

And I thought that was a little interesting because he kind of crushed all those goals.

And really, the fans were the ones that crushed those goals.

But no, I think -- definitely, he's made a -- pretty market, you know, a pretty market impact -- on attendance to this point.

His first year.

>> Lou: Okay.

Now, in your story, you wrote that, athletic director Fernando Lavoe is upping salaries for his coaching staff as well, and also freeing up additional resources that will be dedicated to roster retention.

What exactly does that mean in the world of NIL in 2025?

>> Reider: Yeah, I think, basically what it essentially means to my understanding is its kind of signing players to [revenue] share contracts and all that -- obviously, you know, you have revenue sharing in college athletics, through house -- house versus NCAA and the kind of stuff that happened there.

So really that means, you know, it's guys that, you know, we'll give you this and all that as well.

If you sign this, you commit to coming back and all of that as well.

So, I mean -- I don't have any -- I've not seen any of these contracts yet.

I have not seen any figures or anything like that yet, but I'm assuming that they will be -- maybe not handsomely compensated, but certainly compensated for returning.

>> Lou: Sure, and that's just the reality of college sports in 2025 right now, right?

>> Reider: Pretty much, yeah.

And it is kind of -- it still feels like a whole new ball game, even though it's been a a couple of years and we've been kind of doing this now.

and UNM is still not to the point where they are -- you know, offering millions of dollars for quarterbacks and stuff like that.

That's really only the upper echelon of football programs.

You know, you're Ohio State's, you're LSU's all that, as well.

But they're in the game and certainly trying to play it.

>> Lou: Nice, all right.

Now speaking of important players; Eck's son, Jackson Eck, he's a linebacker for the team, he was also named, Mountain West Co-Defensive Player of the Year.

What's it been like to see a father-son duo that carries such importance for the team?

>> Reider: Yeah, it's pretty unique.

And it was something that, I ended up writing about towards the end of the season, in the sense that it was always a question that I had.

I think we've all been on like a Little League team at some point, and the coach's kid maybe gets a little more playing time than the others.

And, there never really seemed to be any of that kind of resentment.

And, it has been really unique to see this kind of, to see a dynamic, where not only is this kind of coaching beloved and becoming beloved in the community and a guy that -- a lot of people are rallying behaind, but his son as well, and it's it's totally deserved.

I mean, he was excellent this year.

Well-deserving of Co-Defensive Player of the Year in the conference.

And, certainly one of the more unique things we've kind of ever covered.

>> Lou: Yeah, it seems really cool.

In securing Eck, keeping his son on the field, presumably ramping up recruiting, will that change the national perception of this program, recognizing that Lobo football is a legitimate program that can bring national eyes and entertain folks not just in Albuquerque?

>> Reider: In terms of, the national perception, I think that's already started to change because of that.

In a lot of respects, I think National media have taken more of an interest.

And I think, you know, he's a guy that a lot of people look at and say, like, I'd like a coach like that for my program.

New Mexico, at worst, was kind of irrelevant.

And they've gotten to a point where they are kind of a fun team to watch, and people do kind of want to look at them because it's a unique deal with a unique coach.

And so, yeah, I think, you know, certainly the first year in that regard was a success.

I think the second year could be even better, too.

>> Lou: Yeah.

Now your colleague, Jeff Grammer, has sat across from me a few times.

We talked a few years ago before Pitino left, and then after and again, everybody kind of saw that coming, and Pitino executed that.

And probably one of the more respectable ways that he could, if Eck does decide to leave at any point, do you see that as a possibility within the life of this contract?

And could he do that and still hold the respect of the fan base in the school?

>> Reider: No, I do see it -- I certainly see it as a possibility within the life of the contract, frankly, was something that Grammer and I were talking about the other day, honestly.

But honestly, I do think it probably will be a little similar to Pitino in the sense that -- the way I kind of view the Pitino situation was that -- really towards -- the down the pike of the last season, it was kind of -- there was that kind of feeling among fans -- enjoy this because I don't think it's going to keep on going for much longer.

And I think he could execute that in a certain way.

I don't think he's going to -- I don't think he's going to a lateral job, or view something viewed as lateral job like Bronco Mendenhall did with Utah State as some fans kind of viewed that there.

I think it would be for a P4 job in a lot of respects too.

So I do think fans would, you know, certainly if it was his Alma Mater, Wisconsin, if that did open up, I think fans would respect that a lot of ways.

>>Lou: In a more positive note, not looking forward to the guy already leaving.

What are you looking forward to next season?

What can fans expect?

>> Reider: Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, it's really interesting to think about -- UNM is kind of in the upper quad upper half at the very -- upper third maybe of this new look Mountain West in terms of resources and, you know, rosters in a lot of respects, too.

And that's just not something that has ever really been the case at UNM.

So I'm very curious to see how that kind of pans out.

All the UNM football I've covered and most of the UNM football I've kind of looked back on they've always been picked to finish bottom of the conference or right, you know, a little bit above the bottom of the conference.

And this -- I wouldn't put it past UNM to be picked to finish second in this new Mountain West, with the way things are coming out -- I don't know if they'll pass UNLV, we'll see what happens there.

But, no, I am curious to see how they look in kind of this, this new look, Mountain West and everything plays out there.

>> Lou: All right, great, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm sure other folks are, too.

Sean Reider, thanks so much for being here.

>> Reider: Thanks for having me.

I appreciate you.

>> Nash: Thanks to Sean Reider for dropping by the studio to talk to Lobo Football.

Staying with UNM, we are going to meet a couple student documentarians with the University's Film Department.

The short film La Planta tells the story of a local Latino organization of the same name, which promotes veganism, that is not using or eating animal products among Mexican and Mexican-American communities.

Senior Producer, Lou Divizio sits down with two of the students who worked on the film, director Jovana Flores and Matt Finley, who conducted many of the interviews.

Here's that conversation, along with a peek at the film itself.

>> Lou: Matthew, Giovanna, thank you so much for being here to come on and talk about your documentary on vegan Mexican cooking and cuisine.

I really enjoyed it, I know our whole team did.

I got a little bit hungry watching it, I'll admit, but, you know, Mexican food and veganism, they don't generally go together in the same sentence.

How did you come up with this idea?

I'll start with you, Jovana.

>> Flores: So basically, growing up, I, as a Mexican, I was really used to tamales, you know, tortillas, all that kind of stuff.

And, I eventually became vegan, you know, at the age of nine, because of the animals and things like that and also the health benefits.

And I saw how it wasn't a common thing in my -- you know, community like you mentioned.

And I decided that I wanted to shed light on something that La Planta, the organization is doing, which is bringing, you know, veganism to the Mexican-American community.

>> Lou: Cool, now, Matthew, I know you did some of the interviewing for this right off the top of the film.

Alicia signs, she was one of your main characters.

She acknowledges that, “vegan in my family isn't very popular.” That's a quote from her.

What did you learn about Alicia's family?

Their journey in making tortillas and running a restaurant?

>> Finlay: Yeah, so it was very like -- humble beginnings.

She eventually did take over the business from her parents, and it was just kind of like an interesting process.

How something that you don't even think about can be vegan, is vegan.

And that's just cool that she was able to make that transition.

>> Lou: Yeah.

For sure.

A little ways into the film, we learned that Alicia found her way to something called, La Planta, which you just mentioned.

That's, of course, the name of your film.

What is La Planta?

>> Flores: La Planta is basically a nonprofit organization that focuses on bringing veganism to the Mexican-American community.

You know, outreach, showing that there is, you know, other options.

There's a way to eat vegan that is still traditionally Mexican and still, you know, enjoyable and, you know, close to our hearts.

And it still makes us feel, you know, like home.

>> Lou: Yeah, we meet the organization's Executive Director, Victor Flores, in the film.

Matt, what did he tell you about the importance and the impact of his work, particularly in the communities that it's aiming to serve?

>> Finlay: Yeah, definitely, well, you know, everybody needs a good resource that they can rely on.

And especially for him, he wanted to provide a resource for the community, especially when that's a little bit more, not necessarily heard of, so like veganism, vegan Mexican food.

Anybody who wants that preference, he was able to provide that for them.

>> Lou: Yeah, one of the things that we really liked about the film was its subtlety.

There seems to be kind of an unspoken sort of breaking down of stereotypes in a very gentle, non-judgmental way.

Is that a reach?

Was that intentional?

Jovana, how did you find that?

>> Flores: That was 100% intentional.

Because like I said, I am a vegan and I am Mexican and I wasn't always, you know, vegan.

And I found out that there was a way you know, and there was a way to still eat traditionally and stuff and, you know, and it can fit into our lifestyle as Mexicans, you know, our culture can fit into that.

And it's still, you know, works.

So I thought that that was definitely something that I wanted to show.

>> Lou: Can you just break down stereotypes a little bit more?

What are the stereotypes?

>> Flores: Some of the stereotypes, around veganism-Mexican.

This is it's not macho enough.

It's not like manly enough, you know, because you see a lot of us, you know, where we were on the ranches.

You know, we're on the farms and stuff.

And personally, my family, I come from a family that, you know, that has a background in farming and ranching and stuff.

So there is those kind of stereotypes.

You know, you have to be manly.

You have to eat meat and stuff.

But that's just simply not true.

We have other alternatives that, you know, do the same things that still make us strong.

>> Lou: And was it difficult to navigate those at all when you were doing interviews?

>> Finlay: I don't think so.

I think that you just kind of ask them about it and they're able to answer.

It's nothing -- Yeah, it's just asking them about their lives.

>> Lou: Great.

Let's get back to La Planta for a minute.

I want to play a clip from your film, highlights a couple of the organization's programs, and then I'm going to ask you guys about it.

>> Victor: The Chef Challenge is a month long event, put on by various groups and organizations, where restaurants and businesses offer vegan options for customers to come try and then, with the hopes of those options staying on the menu after the event is over.

One of our programs is restaurant outreach that we do with the restaurants, and we focus a lot on Mexican-owned restaurants.

We try and go in there and make sure they're successful with any vegan option they're going to add.

Obviously, everybody can eat vegan, so we don't want to just focus on feeding vegans, I guess.

We want everybody to try out plant-based eating.

So when we do that, we definitely, reach out to the restaurants, train, support and help market their menu items that they add.

>> Lou: Okay, Jovana, take us to that event that you attended.

What was it like at the Chef's Challenge?

And what were people's attitudes like around your idea or the idea of vegan cuisine?

>> Flores: People were actually very open at this event.

I think that it was like an event that was open to the public, and it was, you know, you could see Halloween costumes and stuff.

So it was a Halloween event and, that was sponsoring the food and just giving out some information there.

And I think that overall, yeah, it was just a very welcoming kind of atmosphere.

And I think people were receptive to the kind of information they were getting, so yeah -- >> Lou: Any surprise from the people who were there -- or at the idea?

>> Flores: I actually think since it's more of a common thing nowadays, it wasn't so surprising, but it definitely was, I think, surprising to see veganism in that kind of event, because you don't really see like -- vegan food sponsoring an event like that.

>> Lou: What did people think after they tried the food?

>> Flores: I think people really enjoyed the food.

From what I heard, everybody thought that, you know, it tasted, you know, just like regular.

There was many people that I heard saying, “oh, wow, this is vegan?” “that's incredible.” you know, “I couldn't tell.” >> Lou: The final third of the film takes a somewhat surprising turn.

How does the Mexican consulate factor into the story?

Joanna.

>> Flores: So the Mexican consulate factors into the story being our broader reach, our, you know, access to that -- to the Mexican community here in Albuquerque.

>> Lou: Okay.

What did you learn about the consulates views and its relationship with La Planta, and how vegan cuisine plays a larger role in the consulates mission?

Did you learn anything about that?

>> Flores: I did learn the Mexican community seems to be more open to these kinds of things, these healthy eating habits and this kind of, you know -- maybe changing the narrative around, you know -- veganism isn't like something that Mexicans can do.

It's not something that fits into our culture.

So I think I definitely learned that they're more receptive to the community.

>> Lou: Okay, great.

Last question.

I'll start with you, Matt.

What was your favorite part of making this film?

>> Finlay: My favorite part was how surprised I was that these things that you wouldn't think were interesting became interesting.

So in the back of Alicia's Tortillria, watching, tortillas go up a conveyor belt was actually extraordinarily fun for me.

And, we had her -- we took home some of her tortillas, and we ate them all in the same night.

They were that good.

So definitely -- I think the things that I wasn't expecting, were the most fun.

>> Lou: Great.

Yeah.

What about you, Jovana?

>> Flores: My favorite part was being up close with the outreach and seeing the actual people that it affected.

You know, I did get to have some conversations with these people and stuff, and they were good conversations and -- it was just a very welcoming kind of vibe to shoot in.

So my favorite part was the people and the community that I got to tape.

>> Lou: What do you hope people will take from the film, also?

>> Flores: I hope people take that veganism can be part of our culture as well, and I think that it has a lot of benefits.

And I think, yeah, it can it can definitely be something that we could do as well.

>> Lou: Great, thank you so much Matt, Jovana.

>> Finlay: Thank you.

>> Nash: Thanks to Jovana, Matt and all of the UNM Film students and faculty who worked on La Planta.

We will drop a link to the film in the description of this segment on YouTube, and we'll publish it on our website.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be here next week with a look back at the best New Mexico in Focus stories from the field.

As we wrap up a year where we got out of the studio and brought you closer to the action more than ever.

For New Mexico PBS, I'm Nash Jones.

Until next week, stay focused.

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