Lexington paper staying in Appalachian Kentucky for reasons both commercial and journalistic

Many metropolitan newspapers have reduced their circulation and coverage areas, but the news bureaus of news bureaus of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Appalachian Kentucky "are not going anywhere anytime soon," even as the size of the paper's news staff is likely to keep shrinking, Editor Linda Austin, right, said last night.

Speaking at a Society of Professional Journalists meeting, Austin said the bureaus in Hazard and Somerset are in areas where many readers regularly shop in Lexington, and about a fifth of the Herald-Leader's circulation is in Eastern Kentucky. But she said the reasons to maintain coverage and circulation are more than commercial. "The publisher has a definite sort of First Amendment reason," she said.

Austin said a number of smaller newspapers in the region feel that they cannot aggressively pursue stories about powerful interests, so the Herald-Leader bureaus serve a watchdog function that would not otherwise be exercised. She said local papers sometimes pass along tips about controversial stories to Herald-Leader reporters in Hazard and Somerset, where The Courier-Journal of Louisville once had news bureaus.

The paper's publisher, Tim Kelly, is a native of Ashland, in the northeastern corner of the state. "I think he really is committed to maintaining that presence," she said. Austin became editor of the Herald-Leader, a McClatchy Co. paper, last February. She spoke at a joint dinner meeting of the Bluegrass, University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University chapters on the UK campus.