In January alone, an estimated 500 journalists were laid off in the U.S, continuing a trend that has been going on for a long time. Community newspapers are disappearing at the rate of a couple per week.
One veteran radio reporter recently blamed this on corporate profiteering. While that may play a role, the primary problem is that newspapers aren’t being supported by advertisers as in the past. That is linked to more people getting their news from internet sources, including social media.
Social media isn’t going to cover your local city and county meetings and provide in-depth coverage of major issues affecting the quality of life in your community. Fake news is often more popular than the real news. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette runs a column every Sunday about all the totally false popular news spread by social media.
Reporters for newspapers, magazines, radio and television have been taught ethics such as being fair, balanced and accurate. They have editors looking over their shoulders to make sure the reporters follow those guidelines. On social media, the first post to come out with splashy news, verifiable or not, gets the largest number of hits, which translates into ad revenues.
The problem with the demise of the legitimate news industry is the impact it has on democracy, as people kept in the dark have no way to act as citizen activists. But there are community newspapers across the country that are bucking the closure trends. Stories of their owners and editors are told in Beacons in the Darkness, Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers by award winning former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Dave Hoekstra. Out of 5,000 weekly newspapers to profile, one that Hoekstra chose was the Eureka Springs Independent.
Once again, the Indie is punching above its weight class. Hoekstra quotes publisher Mary Pat Boian as talking about what it is like to report in a community where there are a lot of PhDs co-existing with people who know how to skin a deer and dowse for water. Hoekstra quotes one of Mary Pat’s columns where she writes, “You don’t have to be mean to anyone unless you want to be.” Asked to elaborate, she told Hoekstra, “Well, it’s kind of like racism. We’re not born racist. We learn it and we learn it from racists. We can learn kindness, too.”
Co-owner Perlinda Pettigrew Owens, ESI’s graphic designer, is credited with putting the paper together with “a warm and colorful eye.” Perlinda was born in Eureka Springs and simply loves newspaper hours, which means all of them. An example of her work is the complicated graphics that tell an important story.
She overlaid of a proposed $300-million Scout Clean Energy Nimbus project superimposed with high-voltage lines, approved without any local news notification, with a proposed for land disposal of food processing waste. The projects, near Green Forest, were made clearly viewable in a half-page graphic.
She also designs the Ozarks Mountains Fun Guide that comes out 10 times a year.
Hoekstra talks about it being unusual for two women to own a community newspaper, but what I find more remarkable about the Indie is the diversity of coverage. They insisted in-depth coverage of the proposed SWEPCO high-voltage transmission lines that, it turned out, were unnecessary except for profiteering by SWEPCO’s parent company; the proposed Kings River quarry in an environmentally sensitive area that was never about rocks, but the misuse of IRS conservation tax credits; and coverage of one of the current issues in Carroll County, the Scout Clean Energy Nimbus Wind Facility that calls for building 46 wind turbines, some nearly 700 feet tall.
Each week there is great columns, including The Coffee Table by Cara Sroges; The Dirt on Nicky, Nicky Boyette’s gardening observations; Jeremiah Alvarado’s Indy Soul, a guide to weekly music and entertainment; Esoteric Astrology by Risa; Having Reel Fun, a fishing column that I enjoy reading even though I don’t fish; and Hall Closets, a sports column primarily about the Arkansas Razorbacks by Scot Halsell.
It is here where we might first learn of the death of someone we held dear, like Lany Ballance. Or find out that our infamous Eureka Springs yellow trash bags are going to be phased out. We get to read stories about Diversity Weekend, upcoming events at the Eureka School of the Arts and the Aud, the huge investment in Opera of the Ozarks, tourism revenues, local trends with Covid and other viruses, and all the amazing stories of how creative and accomplished people who have moved here “found” Eureka Springs.
The other remarkable thing about Perlinda and Mary Pat is that they not only edit and compose the paper, they delivered it for years, through rain, snow, pandemics and holidays.
And they don’t do it for the money (quoting Mary Pat in a recent column about all the contributors to the Indie). It is a mission to, as Hoekstra said of Mary Pat and Perlinda and the other newspaper people in his book, “to keep the lights on at community newspapers.”
The Indie has not been immune to the downturn for community newspapers, and Mary Pat has been honest about that. She has asked for community support in the form of advertising and subscriptions. This is a free newspaper, but if you want to keep it going, consider a subscription fee of $65 per year, then pick it up rather than having it mailed. Run an ad and/or tell an advertiser you appreciate their support of local journalism. Know this is one more thing special about Eureka Springs… it is home to a wonderful community newspaper.