By: LINDA STAMATO, NEW JERSEY HILLS MEDIA GROUP
Jan 7, 2020
After years without a strong local voice, our community does not know itself and has no idea of important local issues or how the area is changing and challenged by growth and the impact of climate change. We are a nameless and faceless town defined only by neighborhoods…
David Cohea, Mount Dora, Fla.
The Tri-Town News in Sidney, N.Y., ended publication a year ago. There is no way to reliably learn about decisions of local governments, or even about the issues being raised. School news, religious news and upcoming and recent events are all lost. Even local advertisements that were helpful in planning for home improvements and gift-giving, not to mention posting local jobs, are gone…
Barbara Renton, Bainbridge, N.Y.
These quotes were taken from a recent survey conducted by the New York Times that asked its readers how they were affected by the decline of local news.
“Losing the News: The Decimation of Local Journalism and the Search for Solutions,” a recent report, portrays a picture of state and local news in every region of the country in decline.
PEN America, a nonprofit organization that protects free speech, produced the report. Its chief executive, Suzanne Nosel, believes we are experiencing a “chilling crisis” because “the first draft of history is disappearing.”
Not so much in northern New Jersey. We have New Jersey Hills Media, publishing 15 community newspapers and overseeing 15 local online news sites, reaching 50 communities.
In the publishers’ own words, they “are the hometown scribes, the keepers of history and the chronicle of shared experiences.”
It’s probably true that, like many others, I tend to take a lot of things for granted but when given the chance to reflect on something as critical as being a citizen in a democracy, I don’t take journalism for granted.
I can sing the praises of The New York Times and the state newspapers I read, but I know I can turn to my reliable community source, in my case, Morris NewsBee, for valuable, timely and trusted guidance and information for what else I may want—and need—to know.
Too many citizens are losing that privilege as noted at the outset. One Times commenter summed it up for all: “Our community does not know itself.”
Adding insult to injury, a recent cross-national study found that the lower the circulation of newspapers in a given country, the higher the level of corruption. As if we didn’t know!
Just recently, for example, Egyptian security forces raided the offices of the last major independent news outlet in the country, detaining several top editors and arresting another. Now, almost all of the state and privately owned media speak with a single pro-government voice — the death knell for democracy.
“A vibrant, responsive democracy requires enlightened citizens, and without forceful local reporting they are kept in the dark,” the PEN report says.
Journalism, the only business protected in the Constitution, is an essential restraint on abuses by the powers-that-be, on the national, state — and — on the local level.
Our town papers report on consequential news, on matters concerning plans for new hotels and apartment buildings, plans and projects underway, on town council meetings and what transpires there — holding government accountable by shedding light on its activities — but also on seemingly minor matters as well.
But minor is in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it? Coverage is very meaningful to the high school kids who perform on the stage, when they graduate and are featured — and it’s meaningful to the family members and friends of certain “high-profile” residents who might not be widely known or appreciated beyond local borders.
Community papers cover the ceremonies and programs that celebrate our history, our culture, and our local institutions, civic and social and educational; but also they render life in our communities in a way that cements.
When newspapers can’t cover local news, our civic and political lives are damaged, leaving us without access to information about where we live. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, for example, was initially reported in The Flint Journal long before the national media picked up the story.
The communities reached by our local papers and online access are vibrant places; they have a lot going on, all the time, and, for the most part, they are growing, larger, and more diverse.
But they are also communities made smaller, by which I mean more intimate, civically active, and meaningfully engaged, not least by the means residents choose to connect, and that is the power of the local printed and online press and its editors, publishers, and staff.
But we can’t be complacent. Local news outlets are under threat.
Over the past 15 years, more than one in five papers in the United States has shuttered, and the number of journalists working for newspapers has been cut in half, according to research by the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism.
The New York Times concludes that, as a result, we see a rise in hollowed-out “ghost papers” and communities across the country without any local paper.
A Pew survey revealed this year, moreover, that 71 percent of Americans believe that their local news outlets are doing well financially but only 14 percent say they have paid for or donated money to a local news source in the past year!
The Pen report makes it clear, “there is simply not enough digital or print revenue to pay for the public service journalism that local newspapers have historically provided.”
Since many publishers have made their online presence free, how, with fewer print sales, will they survive? It’s a troubling question.
For New Jersey Hills Media, though, it’s a different question. Gathering and disseminating news isn’t and can’t be cost-free; it’s that simple. And so, yes, you pay to get access to New Jersey Hills media.com. Co-publisher and Executive Editor Elizabeth Parker explains why:
“Supporting your local paper is more than just supporting a local business. It is about supporting Democracy at a time when it really is under assault around the world and even in some parts of our society.
“In many of our communities, we are now the only media outlet that covers public meetings on a regular basis. We are the only ones sending trained journalists on a weekly basis into town meetings and community events to keep our readers in the know. We believe local residents will want to help us maintain our communities as bastions of democracy …
“Subscribing is a way to support real news and how our system is designed to work.”
The first draft of history starts here.
Linda Stamato is Co-Director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. She is a frequent op ed contributor to the Star-Ledger/NJ.com and to New Jersey Hills Media Group, for which she wrote this column.
