Missouri publishers return papers to local ownership as Gannett sheds titles

Gannett is shedding newspapers across the country after its merger with GateHouse Media. It has shed 12 in Missouri, and local publishers are returning them to local ownership.

One of them is Trevor Vernon, owner of Vernon Communicatons:

The Lake Sun-Leader, which also publishes magazines and specialty publications about recreation and real estate at the Lake of the Ozarks, will operate with three reporters and an editor, Vernon said.

That means he’s hiring.

While Vernon is not looking to add to his chain, he said he would like to see more community newspapers returned to local ownership.

“I hope it is a national trend,” he said. “I believe that Gannett has done the same thing in Kansas. I really believe there is a need for local journalists to do local journalism.

 From the Missouri Independent:

https://missouriindependent.com/2021/10/11/new-owners-seek-to-revive-missouri-newspapers-sold-by-gannett/

All paid up?

As community papers struggle to stay afloat, one media organization has an idea for its holdings. Thoughts?

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-medianews-group-adds-paywalls-to-23-more-newspapers/

Seeing need for local ownership, former owner buys back small daily paper he sold 21 years ago

Gene Hall of Charles City, Iowa, sold the Charles City Press 21 years ago. About a month ago, he and his wife Cathy bought it back, along with the New Hampton Tribune and associated publications. This week, in the Iowa Newspaper Association Bulletin, he explains why, and it's a terrific testimony to the value of local newspaper ownership. There are good chain-owned papers, but Hall has seen the bad side of both forms of ownership, and with the newspaper business in turmoil, his reflections are quite timely.

"I am coming more to the realization that in order for community papers to be the best they can be they must be locally operated and better yet, locally owned," Hall writes. "I repurchased the paper I sold some 21 years ago because this is my paper in my community and I care. I’m essentially a private owner of a public trust and I feel good about that." With a circulation of 2,800, the Press is one of the smallest daily newspapers in the country. (Encarta map)

Hall opines, "The business model of community/local newspapers is still strong and will remain so. What is broken is the capital structure caused by way too much debt; unrealistic profit goals set by private equity owners; operational plans put in place by “Wall Street” analysts whose lack of knowledge and experience in the business is only exceeded by their shortsightedness."

Hall notes that he was "a corporate officer in a publicly traded media company for more than 15 years." His piece doesn't name the companies, but he told us that they were, in succession, Hollinger, Liberty Group and GateHouse Media. "Never was there a meaningful discussion about the product being germane to the community. Never a sentence about putting something back into the product or community," he recalls. "What has and is ruining American media is that, like even baseball, it came to be run solely as a business. Newspapers are more than a business. They have obligations and responsibilities far beyond what a big-box retail store or a widget manufacturer has. ... Big business has corrupted a sacred covenant. Care must be taken with a commodity so central to democracy." (Read more, via RuralJournalism.org; this item is also posted to The Rural Blog)

Volunteer weekly started when chain closed one

Many readers of this blog probably read yesterday's Los Angeles Times story about citizens in a Colorado town starting a newspaper after their local paper closed. The story was fine as far as it went, but for those interested in more details about content, competition, ownership and other facets of the story, read this item in The Rural Blog.

Good investments: Small, local media companies with digital components, banker and publisher say

Jeanne Straus, right, the president of Monroe, N.Y.-based Straus Newspapers, had a question for her fellow weekly publishers in the New York Press Association when she took over as president on Friday: "What do Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., Roger Ailes of Fox News and Strauss Zelnick, the investment banker, all have in common?"

I said, "They're all rural publishers," thinking that Zelnick might be one. Two out of three wasn't bad. As Straus noted and has been reported, Ailes recently bought the Putnam County News and Recorder in Cold Spring, N.Y. And she noted that News Corp. recently bought weeklies in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. She could have also noted that Murdoch decided not to sell Ottaway Newspapers, a former Dow Jones subsidiary that has weeklies and a large rural clientele.

Answering her own question, Straus said the three men "are all headed our way – to the local community newspaper business. Strauss Zelnick said in January of this year that he wanted to invest more in 'smaller businesses … that have digital components.' And apparently he believes in old line media companies because he thinks although we don’t currently have the answer yet on the digital business – we will eventually," Straus said. "So my talk to you today is really a pep talk. Some pretty savvy media watchers think you – and I – are perfectly positioned for the future – small, local media companies with a digital component." For her full remarks, click here.

The digital component was my topic the next day, at a presentation arguing that weekly newspapers need to enter the 24/7 world: "For decades now, Americans have grown more accustomed to getting their news for free: First from radio, then TV, then from the Internet. (I say people get news free from the Internet, because while they pay for Internet access, there are plenty of free news sites.) Now, on top of the phenomenon of news for free, is the phenomenon that is already changing weekly newspapering: Americans are increasingly expecting to get their news immediately. Increasingly, your readers simply will not understand why they have to wait several days to read in your newspaper the local news that they heard about at the grocery, the post office, the bar or the coffee shop. There will be a demand for immediate local news, in the form of text, and someone will fill it." (Read more)

Also at the conference, the publishers voted to add this to the NYPA by-laws: "NYPA members are urged to conduct business with high ethical standards and practice good journalism ethics as exemplified by the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics."

A 'swarm' approach to in-depth reporting

One of the most persistent myths of Community Journalism is that it is often "soft" journalism that does not tackle tough issues. We plan to confront that myth in August at the AEJMC convention with a number of sessions, most notably a panel on bravery at rural newspapers.

In the meantime, you all should read the American Journalism Review article about CNHI's attempt to combat that myth as well — by getting many of its 90-some newspapers to collaborate on in-depth reporting on big, national issues. Examples include a three-part series on gambling addiction, another series on the crumbling Interstate Highway system, and a brilliant (and scary) series on the injuries suffered by young athletes who play for poorly trained coaches.

One of the most important things we can all do as members of COMJIG is bring such examples to the attention of our colleagues and students to remind them that Community Journalism can (and does) include many examples of serious, in-depth reporting.