Long Live the Zephyr

By Christian Probasco, 5-31-09

Jim Stiles, editor of southern Utah’s esteemed Canyon Country Zephyr, arrived at some of the same conclusions about the future of southern Utah as I have, albeit from a different direction. Mainly, we’ve both noted, and written about, and grown tired of the economic model of billionaires and corporations with their myriad earth-unfriendly agendas paying their dues to Washington D.C.-based corporate environmental organizations and then getting a greenwash pass to wreak environmental havoc.

Stiles caught a lot of flack from former supporters when he started doing in-depth reporting about the model and its consequent environmental results. The economic downturn hit about the same time he was switching to a non-tree-killing version of the Zephyr.

Christian Probasco: Are you still clinging hopelessly to the past? If so, what does it feel like to enter the internet age?

Jim Stiles: As a slogan for the Zephyr, I’ve tossed it. The ‘clinging hopelessly’ mantra gave a few people an excuse to marginalize or even repudiate a lot of the Zephyr’s message in the last few years. Do I miss simpler times?  A world where our lives were less complicated and frenetic?  When the quality of our lives was measured by who we are and not what we own? Absolutely.

But a few critics of the Zephyr have tried to re-define me as some grumpy curmudgeon who hates bicycles. Talk about disingenuous. One reviewer of “Brave New West” actually wrote that. A silly man. And me a “curmudgeon?” Anyone who really knows me can attest that I am downright lovable.

As for entering the “internet age,” the Zephyr has been online for a decade. But not exclusively. The newly designed web site better reflects what the paper Zephyr was visually. In fact, the online Zephyr IS the old print version, with color. And with a lot more pages.

There seem to be a lot of readers who think they need to ‘sign up’ with me in order to get the Z online. ALL components of the web site are free and accessible to anyone. If they send me their email address, it simply means that they’ll receive notification each time a new issue is posted. But they can check it out any time they want.

CP: Have you had any problems moving your advertisers to the web? Did any of them balk at not being able to see an ink and paper copy of the Zephyr? What about your regular contributors?

JS: The Zephyr had a major loss of advertisers in 2008, due in part to the “Global Economic Crisis,” or whatever the hell it is. And I think the Zephyr’s theme re: unbridled growth and development probably cost The Z a lot in ad revenues as well. I could hardly expect an advertiser to fund a publication that thought Moab, or the West, had grown beyond its ability to sustain itself. At the end, the core of Zephyr advertisers were the people who believed and hoped that a publication like the Zephyr needed to survive. That loyal gang of 25 or so businesses helps keeps me going, financially and, for lack of a better word, spiritually as well. It’s comforting to know they care that much.

What has also been gratifying is the number of regular readers who have joined what I call The Backbone. Their financial support has been extraordinary. The Backbone’s cartooned faces appear throughout each new issue. The Backbone has made all the difference.

CP: Moab is modernizing. If I recall correctly, you’re no longer living there. But how are you dealing with the fact that it is becoming the Park City of the south? Do you accept advertising from businesses which are wrecking the old Moab?

JS: To be honest, most of the big Moab promoters who are “wrecking the old Moab” quit talking to me a long time ago. My surviving advertisers are like me, vestigial remnants of old Moab. Now you can make the argument, and I’ve made it myself, that we had a hand in all this, just by moving to Moab and starting businesses and creating an atmosphere amenable to the grubby fingers of the full-blown amenities economy. So in that regard, yeah, I’d like to slit my wrists at times....as to coping with Moab as the new Park City, I just try not to look anymore. I rarely go there. And that’s why the online Zephyr is called “The Planet Earth Edition.” We still remember our roots but The Z tries to look at the bigger picture. After all, the future of the entire planet seems to be hanging in the balance.

CP: In the same vein, how is the war going between old Moabites and new?

JS: I think the old Moabites have gone underground or moved away...I’m not even sure what constitutes an “Old Moabite” anymore. What amazes me is the way “New Moab” has spun itself as a progressive, forward thinking community that is leading Utah into the 21st Century.  If you can convince yourself and your constituents that a sell-out is a green-tinged compromise, then I guess the town gets exactly what it wants and deserves.  Last year one of its new environmental stalwarts, proposing to flood public lands with tourists as a way of ‘saving it’ from other threats defended his plan, saying, “Perhaps, in the 21st Century idealism is no longer applicable.” He got that right at least.

CP: What kind of personal pressure have you been under recently?

JS: Well...we all have problems. Mine just came all at once. I’d planned to move to Australia last year and get married but the relationship failed. I took it badly, but I ended up camping out in the Aussie bush for almost three months and that was pretty good, most of the time. Then my dad died in January and last month my 81 year old mom fell down the stairs and ended up in the hospital. That’s where I am now, playing butler for my mother. She’s on the mend and she thinks I’m a great cook, but all I can do is make omelets, salads and Campbells soup. Anyway, things are bound to get better, right?

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