Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

I’m an advocate of community journalism and especially newspapers.

Okay, that’s probably from Captain Obvious, but needed to be said.

Newspapers, we’re told over and over, are a dying breed.  And those who own or work at them are sometimes referred to as “relics.”  We’re operating in an industry that modern life has passed by, is the narrative being forced down the throats of Minnesotans.

Despite the recent news about a group of “chain-owned” newspapers in the southwest metro area closing, most independently-owned community newspapers are doing fine. What isn’t told, is that most of the newspapers closed were profitable, just not profitable enough for what one area editor called the “soul-less hedge-fund owners.”

In the news last week, which doesn’t get the splash on television news when a newspaper is closed, is the fact that two communities, Hutchinson and Litchfield will be getting their newspapers back.  A company stepped up, and although the papers, because they were closed rather than sold, will be under different names.  Still, the communities they serve will retain a local newspaper.

That’s good news for those communities, for newspapers and for the state.

“We wanted this to be seamless, without a break in community coverage, and we are going to deliver that as closely as possible. The citizens of Hutchinson, Litchfield and surrounding areas will go one week without a local paper, but only one week. And then they will be served by familiar faces, albeit under new (newspaper) names,” said Lee Bachlet, chief operating officer of CherryRoad Media, the company that is restarting the newspapers.

Staffing the new community newspapers will be previous editorial and advertising staff from the Leader and Independent Review, including Editor Brent Schacherer, who has been doing journalism in Hutchinson and Litchfield for 25 years.

Sure, newspapers have had to deal with modern competition generated by computers and the internet, but they continue to do the one thing that local residents want–provide accurate, local news coverage of our local government, our neighbors and our businesses.  It has never been “rocket science” and it has never been the “only” answer.  Newspapers simply play a role in the community.  What newspapers do is report news that is important to the community it serves.  We happen to use the printed word.  But we also use digital content so whether you turn the page or swipe up with your finger, you are reading the local news.

If we didn’t do that, there would be a lot less vetted local news.  There would be no swiping because most of the news on your phone, tablet or computer is stolen from newspaper news sites and directed at larger audiences.  Apple news, or the endless supply of tribal “news” sites on the internet are not concerned one iota about Pope County and its residents.

The narrative is that we can’t survive for myriad of reasons, most of which just aren’t true.