Sharon S. Brodell is a current owner of A.M. Costa Rica, an online daily newspaper in San Jose, Costa Rica. She worked with her husband, James J. Brodell, over a period of 53 years and still found time to raise two daughters and received a degree in teaching the English language to foreign speakers. She now resides in Georgia near a daughter and makes frequent trips to visit another daughter in Colorado.
My wife, Sharon, was under firm instructions to shoot me if I ever tried to start a newspaper again. Alas, her pistol misfired, so here we are approaching 17 years of running an English-language newspaper on foreign soil, surrounded by Runyonesque characters. We want to share what we have learned about publication startups and finances.