Teton Media Works

Since its inception in 2012, Teton Media Works DNA originates with the founding of the Jackson Hole News in 1970. Jackson Hole newspaper entrepreneurs Virginia Huidekoper and Ralph Gill and later Michael Sellett sought to document a Western resort town ripe with adventure in all seasons and growing increasingly restless in its small-town skin. Local ownership of media properties is unusual today, but it is a tradition the Olsons are committed to preserving Our goal was to have a paper that reflected the interests of the community but we were especially aware of the conflict between Jacksons growth and the need to protect the wild lands around the valley, Huidekoper said. We were definitely conservation oriented. Along with the Jackson Hole Guide, which started publishing nearly two decades prior, Jackson Hole was a two newspaper town. Newsman Fred McCabe purchased the Guide in 1968, and joined by wife Liz in 1970, began one of the fiercest rivalries in publishing lore. In 1978, Sellett and partners founded the Jackson Hole Daily to provide up-to-date national and international news in the then isolated community. Today the Daily is the locals favorite and a publication anomaly for the valleys news- and information-seeking visitors. In 2002, the News and the Guide merged to preserve the publishing heritage of both the Sellett and McCabe families, their predecessors and the future of news and the recording of history in Jackson Hole. Kevin Olson and family moved to Jackson Hole in 2001 from Mission Viejo, California, to help Sellett run the News and the Daily. Prior to moving, Olson held a number of publishing positions in his ten-year career with the Orange County Register (Santa Ana, California). In December 2012, News stockholders and Olson agreed on the transfer of ownership to Teton Media Works, Inc. founded by Olson. In an era of exciting changes on the media landscape, it was important to me that the newspaper remain in local hands, Sellett said. Since taking over management of the newspaper 11 years ...