“If a town loses its paper, it’s less of a town.”
~ Al Cross, Director emeritus of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky
Thanks to the generosity and love and support of our local Meeker community, that quote is not going to be true here.
When we became aware of a precarious financial situation last week, we went into emergency mode. As “keepers of the flame” — stewards of a community newspaper that’s one of the oldest businesses in the county — and as journalists who believe strongly in the free press and the need for independent local news, we’re not willing to go down without a fight. We’ve endured too much in the last seven years personally and professionally, and we have too much respect for those who built the foundation on which this business/public service rests to quietly close the doors. As we’ve said all along, since my first column in this space seven years ago, this isn’t our newspaper, this is the community’s newspaper. With that in mind, we reached out for help.
Our community, as it always does in time of crisis, rose to the occasion, bringing in enough money in less than a week to keep us above water while we jettison some extra weight, shore up some leaks and trim the sails. We’re currently developing a plan for sustainability that will ensure the viability of this newspaper for the future, increase community engagement, and establish an improved business model. Details of that plan will be shared as they are confirmed, but rest assured, thanks to all of you, we’re not going under at the end of the month as we feared.
Changes that should have been made a long time ago are underway. These are business decisions, made in light of where our funding comes from and what our responsibilities are as publishers of a 138-year-old newspaper. Some of those decisions are difficult and painful, but they’re necessary.
All week I’ve been trying to figure out how to say “THANK YOU” in a way that expresses the depth of gratitude we feel toward this town. The best way I can think of is to keep its newspaper alive and well, so that’s what we’re going to do.
Nikki,, Thank you for working so hard to keep the paper “running”! Any small town needs a community newspaper to keep the residents informed. It would be a terrible loss for the paper to quietly leave…..