Mike Sullivan had no intention of getting involved when the local paper shut down. In fact, he wanted to wash his hands of the matter entirely.<\/p>\n
But when residents of Weare, New Hampshire, began telling the library director they had no way to get local information anymore, Sullivan knew he had to do something.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Libraries] do all sorts of weird things,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe do what nobody else does, whatever that may be.\u201d<\/p>\n
So in March 2017, Sullivan and the staff of the Weare Public Library started their own weekly newspaper for the community of just over 9,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe printed on a photocopier, and we killed it in a few months,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHad to go out and buy a new one.\u201d<\/p>\n
It started with local election information \u2013\u00a0providing zoning board candidate information, town hall meeting times and election results. But \u201cWeare in the World\u201d has since expanded to include a police blotter and features on local businesses, as well.<\/p>\n
While Sullivan currently maintains his job as the library director in Weare, he said the main reason he decided to add \u201cwriter and editor\u201d to his resume was in order to respond to a community need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s sort of what we in public libraries do these days,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cOn the other hand, there was a very clear argument that this has got to be somebody else\u2019s problem, not ours. In fact, I still hear it from a few of the more conservative types around. \u2018You really should concentrate on checking out books.\u2019 But the fact of the matter is, so often we pick up what no one else can or will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sullivan recognizes Weare comes very close to a news desert \u2013 a community with no local news outlets for residents to turn to at all. While there are blogs and Facebook pages, he said oftentimes the residents of the rural New Hampshire town cannot access that information on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere it really hurts is people who don\u2019t like to go online or don\u2019t follow Facebook. That\u2019s who really gets lost,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an aging population here, so that\u2019s a big chunk of our people. We design the newspaper specifically for people who don\u2019t live online.\u201d<\/p>\n
One remedy to news deserts comes in the form of citizen journalism \u2013 locals reporting on what they see, hear and experience in their own communities. But according to Sara Netzley, associate professor of journalism at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, it is still not enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t ever want to say that citizens can\u2019t or shouldn\u2019t act as eyes and ears in situations like this. They can, and they\u2019ve done a good job in a lot of instances,\u201d Netzley said. \u201cBut there is really power in training and understanding news values, impact, ethics and routines. That\u2019s not to say the media is perfect. They are not. They make mistakes. But there\u2019s a little more accountability there. There\u2019s just a little more clarity of purpose there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local news outlets are necessary for localizing national events, according to Netzley, and that\u2019s where news deserts are becoming increasingly dangerous. They prevent information from being distributed to residents in isolated areas \u2013 like small towns in Central Illinois.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf healthcare benefits get slashed, this tax bill goes into effect \u2026 Great. So what does that mean?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be different here than it is in Chicago, or Washington state or Louisiana. We need to know locally what our leaders are going to do, how are they going to fix it, are there going to be local solutions that fill the gap where things are falling short? Without local journalists to devote that kind of time and energy, we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa Depies, editor of the Geneseo Republic in Geneseo, Illinois, said she and her staff focus especially on localizing national news for their small town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really try to be as, the magic key word, hyper-local \u2026 We\u2019re really looking at people and places, neighbors and faces,\u201d Depies said. \u201cFor example, recently, Barbara Bush died. Well, here a lady had gone jogging with her with her at one point way back in the \u201880s, so we [covered that].\u201d<\/p>\n
The Geneseo Republic is a weekly paper, published every Friday. Depies said she isn\u2019t concerned the area, which is home to 6,000 residents in the immediate area and about 4,000 in smaller farming communities surrounding the town, will become a news desert. Her readers are far too loyal to allow that.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are interested \u2026 It feels like everybody in town reads the paper,\u201d she said. \u201cI know grandma buys the paper, but then they pass it on to four other relatives \u2026 We joke at the public library our weekly paper is the one they keep behind the counter and people have to go check it out, because otherwise too many people were stealing it. There\u2019s a demand for it, they\u2019re willing to walk off with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Geneseo, Netzley\u2019s hometown of Lincoln, Illinois, is a small and close-knit community. But she said she has begun to see the beginnings of a news desert \u2013 and others are starting to notice, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Lincoln] had a great paper \u2026 They have been gutted. The staff size has shrunk so much since I was there, and it was small when I was there. The editors they\u2019ve had in place since I left have maybe not been so focused on the news as one would like,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mom still lives in the area, and she\u2019ll complain that she\u2019ll read the paper and see a report about a fire that happened, or there was a bad car accident. She\u2019ll get to the end and realize, \u2018Oh, it was in Springfield.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Shrinking circulation and staff sizes does not just affect small town newspapers, though. The Journal Star, located in Peoria and serving the town with a population of just over 110,000, has seen a reduction in newsroom resources, as well.<\/p>\n
Chris Kaergard, assignment editor and political reporter at the Journal Star, said there are \u201ctons of things\u201d he would report on if the paper had the means to.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur coverage of minor government entities has gone way downhill \u2013 that would be the park board, the sanitary district, the tri-county planning commission, the library board,\u201d Kaergard said. \u201cEven in outlying communities, where we used to be able to send reporters regularly, we no longer do \u2026 City of Eureka public meetings, or Metamora or Germantown Hills \u2026 We used to regularly have reporters at those city council meetings. Now we have one reporter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaergard said he can\u2019t imagine not having information provided by journalists on the community he lives in.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, in your local community, your school district and your city council and, to a lesser extent, your county board and your park board, in Illinois, all of those governments together end up making up the largest share of your property tax bill,\u201d Kaergard said. \u201cNot having newspapers means not having reliable, unbiased, regular coverage of where the decisions are made that cost you, the taxpayer, the most money.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a taxpayer and a journalist, Kaergard said he wants to know where his taxpayer money is going \u2013 and if it is being spent responsibly. That is why local journalism is a necessity for communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cCitizens don\u2019t know what\u2019s being done in their name, or worse, they\u2019re depending on the government to tell them,\u201d he said. \u201c[The Stark County Board] has to set the salaries of every member of the officials who are being elected in each December. They have to do this in open session. It\u2019s a basic Open Meetings Act thing. Our stringer heard and went to the meeting and lodged a protest because the Stark County Board decided, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s kind of an embarrassing thing to talk about their salaries in the open. Let\u2019s go into executive session and do it.\u2019 That\u2019s a classic example of why you need to have people there. These guys didn\u2019t mean anything by it, they were looking to save face for some people who they all know, go to church with or see at the grocery store. It wasn\u2019t an attempt at shenanigans, but was still illegal and immoral in what they were trying to do. If we hadn\u2019t had a reporter there, there would\u2019ve been nobody to call them out on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what can save local journalism?<\/p>\n
Depies said her readers have come to depend on the stories about their neighbors, teachers and athletes to keep their town going. So the Geneseo Republic reports on what happens in town, but it also engages in the community and gives residents what they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an older lady call a few years ago because she felt she had the most beautiful tree in town, so you do a story on something like that,\u201d Depies said. \u201cI realize that\u2019s not the sort of thing that\u2019s getting covered in your New York Times, but still. What makes it interesting? What will make them talk about it at the coffee shop?\u201d<\/p>\n
Netzley said the sheer need for local news coverage may ensure its presence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have plenty of resources for national,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you have cut the local newspaper and they have fewer people to go cover school board meetings or to talk to residents about concerns with maintenance of city roads, for example, who\u2019s going to cover that? Nobody. The content is never going to be quite as compelling, even though it\u2019s often more important and there is more of a day-to-day impact on the people they are supposed to be serving.\u201d<\/p>\n