Local dogs love The Mountain-Ear, too.
GILPIN COUNTY — From the time I was born to the time I was 18 years old I lived in four different communities. The four places ranged from very rural to rural to a small city. They were in three different states and were all farming communities.
One important fact about each community is that each one had a local newspaper when I lived there, and each one still has that paper today. They all have the same name. They are not all under the same ownership, but the fact that they all still exist is surprising.
The Tribune in Seymour, Indiana, is now owned by a company that owns several newspapers.
The Plainsman in Huron, South Dakota, is owned by a media conglomerate now.
The Faulk County Record, out of Faulkton, South Dakota, is still owned locally.
The Rice Lake Chronotype in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, was owned by the same local family for three generations. In 2014 it was sold to a large publishing company.
Keeping a local newspaper going is challenging. From my small, non-scientific study of the four newspapers that I connected with as a kid growing up, 75% of them have sold to large publishing companies to be able to continue functioning.
Witnesses in one of these communities have told me that the quality of local news after it was sold to a large cooperation greatly decreased.
A local newspaper or publication owned by and/or controlled by locals with local journalists is vital.
Author and journalist Scott Pelley said, “There is no democracy without journalism.” I would say that there is no democracy without local journalism. (Democracy defined simply as the people voting for representatives in free and fair elections.)
As more local newspapers shutter their doors, fewer people learn about local candidates and politics, school boards, and town and county issues. This leads to a gap in understanding, participation, and engagement. When done well, local journalism is community connection or glue that nothing else can really accomplish.
Local journalism crosses generational lines by sharing the news of local schools and what the area seniors are doing. It tells personal stories and gives a voice to the people who live here decade after decade.
I also always have in my mind that The Mountain-Ear is a historical record. With each paper that we put together every week, I think that in 50 or 100 years someone might see that their relative graduated from one of our local high schools, or someone else might read about the Fourth of July parades. They might laugh at the clothes we wore or the cars we drove. I hope they see in the photos and through our writing that we cared for each other and our community.
I want The Mountain-Ear to thrive. I want our TEAM to do our work so well that we are that connection in the communities that we cover. I want you to learn and at times be challenged by our efforts. We are here to listen and essentially be a mirror to the current narratives.
By the number of Post-It notes stuck to my desk and emails in my inbox I have much work to do.
Thank you for reading The Mountain-Ear and for supporting local journalism.
