Today concludes National Newspaper Week, a time when newspapers take the opportunity to toot their horns.
Hear it?
Yes, it’s grown fainter.
Truth is, small town newspapers like the Register are fewer and farther between due to the changing business models, rise of digital and social media and, unfortunately, the attitude of some that local events play no role in their lives.
Because so many newspapers are now owned by conglomerates, their business models have drastically changed. A call for a missed paper may be directed to a call center overseas. Diminished news staffs result in less local news. Instead of a photo of Friday night’s homecoming king and queen — congratulations Brett Willis and Ally Ellis! — there may be a photo of hurricane damage thousands of miles away. In the absence of local coverage, all news becomes national news.
What were once dailies are being reduced to weekly publications to save money on staff and production costs. And when that doesn’t prove lucrative enough for demanding shareholders, the newspaper is folded.
It doesn’t have to be this way, insiders say. In fact, a newspaper remains a sound business model. But when greed is allowed to call the shots, all bets are off. In the case of recent high-volume media mergers, instead of plowing profits back into payroll and production, they are used to satisfy investors and pay down debt.
Though we are not in the same boat, that does not mean we are not affected by these trends. If the common groupthink is that newspapers are a dying breed, then it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
After 157 years in business, The Register is continually reinventing itself to be Allen County’s go-to source for news. Just this week, our news staff grew by one with the introduction of Reese Becker in sports. By month’s end, we’ll be beefing up our ad department with a new sales representative.
Between our dynamic website, social media channels, email newsletters, podcast and more, we’ve adapted to the digital age and are thriving in it. Our audience is growing, and we are so grateful that we can count Iola as a community that values a local paper.
Sure, a social media post may announce an upcoming event or provide a few tidbits of news about a specific activity, but that does not replace the comprehensive community coverage that a newspaper provides.
We know we can’t make everyone happy. My editorials frequently spur conservatives to call us a liberal rag, while liberals wish I would decry capitalism.
Either way, most people appreciate that I and those who write letters to the editor are willing to put themselves out there. It’s not whether you agree or not, it’s the feeling that we know each other that knits us tighter as a community.
Communities that have lost their newspapers suffer.
Concrete evidence exists there’s less participation in local elections in communities without a newspaper. An obvious reason is that people are in the dark about routine meetings of city, county and school board officials. If you don’t know the issues, what’s there to vote about?
