There’s a new paper in Clovis. What happened to the old one?

Community newspaper The Clovis Roundup closed earlier this year. Now, it has a successor in newly established The Clovis Times. The new paper was established by Terry Wild, a decades-long publishing veteran.

“I’ve been in the publishing business for many, many years, and I just wanted us to have a good newspaper,” Wild said. He started his career in 1974 and has published titles across California including Los Gatos This Week and The Saratoga Times.

KMPH reported that The Clovis Roundup’s closure was due to the owner suffering from health issues. Former contributors could not be reached by The Bee for comment.

Unlike The Clovis Roundup and the even older Clovis Independent (owned at one point by Bee parent company McClatchy), Wild said that the new paper’s goal was to be a nonprofit venture focused on “citizen journalism” and promoting “the Clovis way of life”, which he defined as “God, family, country.”

“I have a good team,” said Wild, adding, “We’re not trying to make it more than a community newspaper.”

He said contributors have backgrounds in education, health and politics.

Wild is also behind The Fresno Times, which recycles the name of a 19th-century newspaper in the city. He acknowledged that coverage for the two cities will look different. “Fresno’s unique. ... It’s more diversified, it has more people, so it would be probably tailored somewhat differently,” Wild said.

The Clovis Times is currently free to read online. Wild said there are also plans to distribute in print.

“I’ve been in a rush to get it up and running. Our website is just a brochure website right now, but we’re going to have a really nice, dynamic, interactive community website in a week or so,” Wild said.