Small-town newspapers keep a community going

     A very fascinating article about a small-town, locally-owned newspaper was brought to my attention last week, and then circulated Facebook…

     The article, which appeared in “The Atlantic,” was written by Elaine Godfrey, who grew up in Burlington, Iowa. Her hometown newspaper was “The Hawk Eye.”

     Godfrey wrote about how her town paper was in jeopardy, bought out by the media company Gannett, and how quickly she saw the demise of local news and local coverage. She said many residents in Burlington took it for granted they would always have a local paper.

     “‘The Hawk Eye’ was how we kept up: It’s where I looked for summer jobs, how my mother and I tracked down weekend tag sales, how we heard which new stores and restaurants were coming to town. It was where my high school Girl Scout troop got a half-page spread our senior year,” wrote Godfrey.

     Sound familiar?

     Let’s look at those initial comparisons… The Monticello Express has published and continues to publish numerous help-wanted ads, so much so right now as positions sit unfilled.

     The Express contains advertisements for businesses celebrating special occasions or anniversary sales, not to mention the seasonal sale opportunities such as “Rooster Days.”

     We stay up to date on stories featuring new businesses, new business owners, business relocations.

     We do features on Scouts and Camp Fire youth, even dedicating several pages to the Scouts every year in February for Scout Week.

     Godfrey goes on to say her town paper was never perfect. We all make mistakes in spelling, even with several eyes on our work every week. I can attest to making mistakes.

     “All of the staffers at the paper lived in the area – you could call the editor on his landline and complain about a story,” she said. Some readers even approached the columnist at their local grocery store if they didn’t agree with his column.

     While I don’t generally give my cell phone number out to just anyone (I don’t have a landline.), the invention of social media has allowed our readers to track me down. And I have been stopped at Fareway, and just about every place in town, by our readers commenting on a story, photo, or one of my columns. This just proves you’re reading the paper!

     Godfrey said people enjoyed cutting out the photos and articles in “The Hawk Eye” for keepsakes. This is part of the reason we do what we do…

     Since the paper was bought out, Godfrey said she’s noticed the toll it’s taken on local content, not to mention the number of employees still producing a daily newspaper. The paper isn’t even designed in-house anymore, taking away that local control.

     Much of the content in “The Hawk Eye” is from other Gannett-owned newspapers hours away, content the people in Burlington couldn't care less about.

     We’re lucky here in that we are the ones the public sees on a daily basis covering governmental meetings, taking pictures at school and community events, interviewing and writing stories about local people and places. And, we have in-house designers layout out the paper each week, designing your ads. That’s the local touch the community deserves.

     Due to the lack of local coverage, the people of Burlington have resorted to creating public forums, private Facebook pages where they speculate about what’s going on in their community. For instance, Godfrey said a commercial building was being erected in Burlington and people took to Facebook, sharing their guesses on what was going into the new building. A simple news story in the paper would have answered all their questions.

     Godfrey also noted something I’ve been saying for years… “We know what happens when a community loses its newspaper. People tend to participate less often in municipal elections, and those elections are less competitive. Disinformation becomes the norm, as people start to get their facts mainly from social media.”

     While I’ve been covering city and county government for 12 years now, it’s only been those hot-button issues that bring people to those meetings. Civic engagement isn’t what it used to be.

     And take a look at the candidates for the Nov. 2 city and school elections… One contested race for city council out of eight singular races for public office. Talk about shoe-ins!

     For so many of the reasons Godfrey named and more, this is why local newspapers are important. This is why we do our jobs, why we work nights and weekends, why we make it a priority to cover what’s going on in the community, to make sure you, our readers, are informed. And it goes without saying, thanks to those who have and continue to support the Monticello Express in so many ways!