Site icon Independent Lens

Feisty Community Newspapers That Are Surviving or Thriving Against the Odds

Independent Lens
Storm Lake Times newspaper for sale in a local restaurant
By Julie Reynolds Martinez

The Storm Lake Times, as featured in the documentary Storm Lake, isn’t the only small, independent newspaper to hang on in the age of news deserts. Here are five more independent papers that have managed to survive despite a global pandemic, takeovers of news chains by private equity, and the struggle to compete for online ad dollars.

What sets these publications apart from their chain-owned counterparts is that, even before the pandemic, all of them kept their role as community servants at the forefront, and they’ve found creative ways to keep going through good times and bad.

Do you have an independent newspaper in your community that is still thriving? Or any favorite papers that have shuttered? Shout them out in the comments below.

Monterey County Weekly (Seaside, California)

This independently owned alt-weekly from Seaside, California, is a long-time survivor, serving local readers since 1988. Though covering the local arts and entertainment scene is its economic bread and butter, the Weekly is also known for hard-hitting investigative and in-depth reporting, especially as coverage in other local papers has shrunk.

“Good journalism is good business,” publisher Erik Cushman says.

When the pandemic shutdown began, readers feared for the Weekly’s very existence after nearly a third of the staff was laid off. Yet even on the brink of disaster, the paper survived and is thriving today.

“The Weekly now has a newsroom staff of nine, more than it’s ever had,” said editor Sara Rubin.

In March 2020, Cushman moved quickly to what he called “Plan C”: cut staff and print runs even before the shutdown became official, because he knew it would mean cash cows like the entertainment calendar would quickly wither. Advertisers were offered steep discounts and the paper created a daily newsletter, heavily focusing on breaking news for the first time. Soon, with the help of a PPP loan, Cushman was able to hire back staff almost to pre-pandemic levels. The Weekly also started an “Insiders” membership program which now has support from 3,500 readers, he said.

“We dropped over 50 percent of our revenue immediately,” Cushman said. “So we changed our business plan to replace ad revenue with reader revenue.”

Rubin said she’s proud of the paper’s staff. While dealing with their own COVID-related struggles at home, they managed to pull together and provide a service to the community during trying times.

“And now, here we are,” she said, “bigger and better than ever.” 

[Sample edition of Monterey County Weekly]

The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)

In 2016, a group of local investors bought the Berkshire Eagle from its hedge fund owner, Alden Global Capital.

Since then, Dan Kennedy, an associate professor at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism in Boston, and author of the Media Nation blog, has been impressed by the Eagle’s resilience.

“It’s having something of a renaissance,” he said. “If you take papers that have no debt and have local ownership, they’re doing OK.”

During the pandemic, the paper did make budget cuts in October 2020, reducing the number of print days from seven to five—but it didn’t reduce staff. And this summer, it even invested in a new printing press capable of printing color on every page.

The purchase was “surely good news, but it shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the Eagle favors print over digital,” Kennedy told his blog followers. In fact, the publication is heavily promoting online subscriptions.

But co-owner Frederic Rutberg recently tried to assure readers that the Eagle is still committed to putting out a paper product. “I hope that the substantial investment we are making in print, as evidenced by our purchase of the Magnum printing press, will put those thoughts to bed,” he told readers.

Rutberg sees his investment as more than a money-making venture—to him, it’s more like an honored duty. “I realize we’re stewards of an important organ of community life,” he said, shortly after he and three friends took the helm.

“My partners and I saw this as a community service,” Rutberg said. “We understood that if we improved the quality of the newspaper, we’d be enhancing the quality of life for the community.”

El Tecolote (San Francisco)

A neighborhood paper mainly serving San Francisco’s Mission District, El Tecolote is a biweekly newspaper published by the nonprofit Acción Latina.

The paper grew out of a class project at San Francisco State University in 1970, spearheaded by journalism professor Juan Gonzalez, who became the paper’s founder and publisher. Gonzalez says the paper was launched with $350 in seed money from a fundraising event.

Five decades later, it’s the longest-running bilingual Spanish-English paper in California.

The paper has survived for more than 50 years with the help of more than 500 volunteers, as well as grants and donations in addition to advertising revenue. Even through the pandemic, readers and volunteers have continued to support the paper.

Although it has expanded to include an online publication and a weekly podcast called Radio Teco, it still distributes 10,000 copies of its free print edition throughout the greater Bay Area.

Like other Bay Area neighborhood papers, El Tecolote practices “mission-driven” journalism by advocating for its community. It also publishes investigative stories that have led to threats against Gonzalez’s life.

Editor-in-Chief Alexis Terrazas says it’s okay if people want to call El Tecolote advocacy journalism. Like any other newspaper, “what we really want to do is just educate our folks,” Terrazas recently told the San Francisco Examiner. “And the more well-rounded voices we have and viewpoints, I think we’ll be more successful in that.”

As an example, the most recent episodes of Radio Teco tell the story of Yésica Prado, a journalist who writes and photographs the lives of unhoused people, and has lived in her car for the last four years.

During the 2020 shutdown, El Tecolote won 20 awards and honors from the San Francisco Press Club, including a lifetime achievement award for Gonzalez.

The Pilot (Southern Pines, North Carolina)

Based in Southern Pines, North Carolina, east of Charlotte, this century-old paper has a circulation of 14,000—which is pretty much the town’s entire population. In the past two decades, it was named the “best community newspaper in America” by the National Newspaper Association and Inland Press Association.

The Pilot publishes twice weekly in print, but over the years, it has published a number of regional magazines and even bought a local bookstore.

“We felt this community would be less without a local bookstore,” Pilot editor John Nagy said. “So we went out and bought it.”

The paper also bucks national trends by keeping subscription rates affordable—right now it’s $69.55 for a full year. But even more critical to its survival, the paper’s owners aren’t afraid to try creative ideas to help the paper stay afloat.

The Pilot also operates a marketing firm, a phone directory, and an arts and culture magazine called PineStraw.

The goal is to diversify revenue, but also to “diversify our outlook, and diversify our business skills,” Nagy said. “Part of the print industry’s problem today is, they don’t believe in themselves. Publishers like GateHouse, Gannett, McClatchy, Berkshire Hathaway, they’re managing margins. They’re not looking for real, aggressive growth strategies that have a little risk attached.”

East Texas Review (Longview, Texas)

This Black-owned, free weekly was created in Longview, Texas, near the Louisiana border, in 1996 “by a group of concerned citizens …to disseminate positive and edifying news to a community that was significantly divided by fear, distrust, and lack of communication,” according to its founders.

Publisher and Editor Joycelyne A. Fadojutimi is a powerhouse: she has a Ph.D., is a chaplain who volunteers at schools and hospices, and was named one of her city’s Stars Over Longview because she “uses words to build bridges in her community.”

The Review recently joined other Black-owned papers from around the country in a letter to lawmakers Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, urging them to support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which would provide payroll tax credits to support local journalists.

Dolores Cullen proofreads her next story for The Storm Lake Times before sending it to print, from the film Storm Lake.

Do you have an independent newspaper in your community that is still thriving? Or any favorite papers that have shuttered? Shout them out in the comments below.

Julie Reynolds Martinez is a freelance journalist who has reported for the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Nation, NPR, PBS, the NewsGuild and other outlets. She is a co-founder of Voices of Monterey Bay.

Exit mobile version