Speaking Personally, The value of “local” and a print renaissance

I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing “local” for weeks. This edition’s center pages contain the rules and details of the Great Christmas Giveaway – a sweepstakes game in which we will give away $500 on Christmas Day. The catch? You have to both shop and spend local. It’s an inspired idea courtesy of Dane Hicks, formerly of Willow Springs, now of Garnett, Kan., and the Anderson County Review.
I was in and out of each of our 18 sponsors’ places of business these last few weeks (14-month-old in tow), pitching the idea, hyping up the local shops, and hammering out the rules. It’s been a whirlwind. 
 
Before I get into my musings on the value of local, please note a slight change to the contest rules – because of a shift in our print schedule, we must have eligible receipts turned in by Dec. 20, not Dec. 22 as previously published. 
 
Please bear with us as we figure out the wrinkles this first year – and check out pages 6 & 7 for contest rules and details. 
 
Now then. 
 
When Ron and I bought the Howell County News in 2019, all we had to recommend us was that we lived locally. No real experience, no relevant degrees, no generational wealth – only a willingness to put our hands to the work and allow this newspaper to invade every corner of our life. 
 
To our utter surprise, we found we have an aptitude for it. Ron, with his art background and graphics experience, created a new look for the pages. Today, he still works late into the night ahead of our press deadline to paste together the paper. 
 
In five short years, my own aptitude has landed me in positions of industry leadership and acclaim on stages far beyond Howell County. This year alone, I have served on a search committee to choose the new Executive Director for our statewide press association. I traveled to Canada to accept an international journalism’s society’s highest award. I served as the president of our regional press association, ultimately organizing and hosting a professional conference right here in Willow Springs. 
 
None of this is to pat myself on the back. I mention it so that when I come to my point, you understand that I am not some starry-eyed kid playing with an inconsequential local newspaper.
 
Rather – I say it humbly, yet somehow also as an internationally acclaimed journalist, and as an industry leader. 
 
Print is not dead. It’s not dying. It is not, as Missouri Press Association Hall of Famer Frank Martin III said his recent fireside chat in a “death spiral.”
 
Print news is experiencing a renaissance. 
 
This rebirth is driven by local, independent ownership. In his fireside chat at The Lincoln School Project in West Plains on Nov. 21, Martin touched on the sale and what he called the “hollowing out” of the West Plains Daily Quill. Martin owned and operated the Quill, as did his father before him, but he sold it to Phillips Media Group in 2016. This year, it was sold again to Carpenter Media Group.
 
These out-of-state corporations took the “local” out of a beloved local institution. It’s not fair to pick on the Quill, or the hardworking folks who are operating it now. When Martin talks about the “death spiral,” what he is describing is the way corporate ownership of small-town papers has driven legacy newspapers into the ground nationwide.
 
The newspaper industry that I never saw, but the former glory to which Martin must be alluding, was a cash cow. There used to be real money in newspapers, which is why corporations bought them up. 
They bought them up and siphoned the profits away from the community. 
 
Market forces did their job as consumers refused a product that did not serve their needs. Values at rock bottom, the cost of buying a newspaper to operate independently is now within reach of hometown folks. 
 
The results have been very encouraging. 
 
In the five years I have owned this publication, the landscape of local newspapers has changed drastically. The change is for the better and only bodes well for the success of accountable and dependable local journalism. 
 
For instance, in the last five years -- the Wright County Journal became independently owned. That paper wins national and statewide awards by the dozen. The Houston Herald changed hands from one independent, local owner to another – the buyer is only 21 years old, and the publication is thriving. The Cassville Democrat – winner of this year’s coveted Golden Cup from the Missouri Press Association, is now under independent ownership. The Golden Cup means it is the most-awarded newspaper in its class statewide. 
 
For us, Howell County News has broken circulation records fourteen times this year. We achieved a record high in August and have danced around that number ever since. Our reporting, opinion, and design work is making a tidy little collection of hardware. And as I mentioned, I have had the honor of helping to choose industry leaders—both the Executive Director of Missouri Press and the board of the Ozark Press Association. 
 
These papers are growing, and they are each bringing a zest of individuality to their markets that makes them not only relevant, but essential, to their communities. 
 
The Ozark County Times and the Webster County Citizen have both been independently owned for decades. There’s no corporate structure making these titles one of 250 owned by a multinational conglomerate. These papers are owned and operated by local families.
 
They are two of my favorite papers, and it’s because they have flavor. When I read those publications, I can almost smell the air, taste the coffee, feel the earth under my feet in their respective counties. They are telling the stories that only they can tell.
 
This is exactly what local newspapers are supposed to do– and what the good ones have always done. They hold up a mirror to the community they serve. The ink should have the tang of the local culture. They should be a witness to these workaday moments in time. 
 
And it’s happening. Successful community news is beginning to thrive again.
 
Newspapers may no longer be a smart investment. But who cares? They are returning to something that is noble and essential to our democracy. 
 
Keep supporting independently owned local journalism. You’re not witnessing the death of an industry. You’re here to see it rise from the ashes. 
 
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Howell County News

110 W. Main St.,
Willow Springs, MO 65793
417-252-2123

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