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I Love My Local Paper
Having moved to a smallish town with which we were not very familiar, one of the first things we did was subscribe to the local newspaper. We had given up on the St. Paul Pioneer Press when in Minnesota previously. None of the news seemed to apply to us as we lived in one of the suburbs. And the reporting was a sometimes not subtle mix of liberal opinion and fact.
At any rate, I love this paper. It is delivered with the mail. Recently they went from Mon-Fri to Tue-Sat in order to get the Friday night local sports scores delivered in a more timely manner. Since we border two other states, there is also news from there as well — school and city news mostly from nearby small towns, and county news which appears to be much more lively than I had expected. They report on new businesses, and feature old businesses that are expanding, or local programs for the benefit of the community, and overall the reporting is fairly interesting.
Recently our publisher purchased a newspaper from Gannett from a larger city about 30 miles north that Gannett was going to shut down. The first thing they did was advertise for local reporters in order to make the newspaper more relevant to the residents. This made for some changes in what we now have — syndicated columnists rather than just letters to the editor once a week. Although the letters to the editor were at times pretty fun — one guy would occasionally take to the paper to mock the St. Louis Cardinals, and there were back-and-forth letters (that really weren’t to the editor) regarding politics. We live in a fairly conservative area, so the new columnists are conservative, but the letters mostly come from liberals.
One of the reasons I really love the paper is because the news reported is relevant to me as a citizen of this area. Occasionally they will print an AP national story if they need filler. But everything else is local. During the election I thought the reporting was surprisingly very fair — reporters attended candidate events and actually reported what was said, not just talking points for both sides. Where else would I find out about the art displays at the library, the new accessible playground, what the exchange students at the local high schools are like, the Bridal Fair at the Smokin’ Gun Event Center (love it!), which business donated money to the local sober house, that the Hawkeye Restaurant will be closed for a week for staff vacations, and that Larry Eppers is flipping pancakes at the American Legion on Saturday morning. Come one, come all!
It may seem very provincial and unsophisticated, but this is what makes a community. Not to mention the personal items: the page-long columns for obituaries (true biographies), congratulations on wedding anniversaries and engagements (complete with pictures), and the reminder that someone is turning 95 and the family would like birthday wishes sent. When was the last time you saw this in the New York Times?
That sounds lovely.
Does your local paper ever publish any bad news? I’m a subscriber to a local paper and it does a very nice job relative to the items you mentioned in your OP, but there is never a mention of anything bad. A recent murder-suicide and a prominent business owner arrested on tax charges were not reported. I don’t know that I mind those omissions but am curious if other local papers follow a similar policy.
We still take the WSJ, mainly for the opinion page, and the Orlando Sentinel-what a rag–in digital during the week, because I like their puzzles and on Sunday. I also like to get the latest lies/news on Ron DeSantis; I’m getting better all the time at sussing out the truth. At least I think I am! Your paper sounds great, Juliana. Enjoy!
There’s always a risk that either/both stories might be somehow verboten. For example, the prominent business owner arrested on tax charges, might have connections to the newspaper.
Our local paper is OK, used to be better. The national stuff is all AP or WAPO stories, but you can’t expect a small local paper to have their own national reporters. Recently they dropped Saturday and now just print 5 days. And last week, instead of finding the paper in the driveway at 6 AM, they started having USPS deliver it after noon.
My biggest gripe is that the letters page, which can be fun, has become a haven for frantic lefties, who are in the minority population-wise. They rant about the local Congressman, who won his last two elections with 65% of the vote; but he’s a fascist, ya know.
So the Letters To The Editor are now the Funny Pages?
Except when my letters are published!
I would say the coverage is about 80 to 90 percent positive. But daily they report arrests and citations from the city and county. They report on sentencing of criminals and especially on drug busts, which seem to be an issue here (mostly meth). They do regular full page articles on the history of the city which does have some sordid aspects.
There have been a couple things in the recent past that resurface. For example, there was a sex abuse scandal which caused a private school to close and the principal/head master sent to jail. For some reason he just started serving his sentence this month and there was an article about that. There has also been some mention of corruption in the police force, but it seems that it has been rooted out. Small communities have long memories and most long term residents believe the city is dying. I am not sure I agree, but I can see why the local news is kept upbeat.
The local paper has fallen on hard times. It was purchased by a publisher with a large collection of suburban papers. One learns a lot more about what is going on by reading the Patch than the paper will ever tell you.
I would love to have a small local paper. But we have never lived in a small town and the newspapers where we lived: Atlanta Journal/Constitution, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel are all much of a muchness. And the cities are so large that even the “local” news section isn’t particularly local for us.
I love my local paper also. It is delivered only twice a week but gives me everything I need: weekly doings at the two local American Legions, pictures of the latest Honor Flight honorees (fewer all the time), an article or two on local residents who have done something notable either currently or on the past, local supermarket adds , restaurant coupons, etc, etc. Oh and a weekly TV guide which I don’t need since I never, never watch anything network anymore.
We subscribed to the AZ Daily Star mainly for Mr AZ (he needed his hard copy crosswords dammit!) but it has reached close to $100/mth and I said bye,bye. Besides I had already read all the news from the day before by the time it was delivered in the morning.
Small town newspapers are uplifting.
Books/magazines with hundreds of crosswords are cheap.
I the think what you really like is living in a small town, where the news is more immediate. The newspaper reflects that.