Small community newspaper prepares as national sporting event comes to town

Sparta, Ky., population 230, home of the Kentucky Speedway, will host more than 100,000 race fans as part of the speedway's first NASCAR Sprint Cup race Saturday, July 9, and preliminaries July 7 and 8. The county's only local newspaper, the Gallatin County News, in the county seat of Warsaw, is on the event editorially and financially, but not so much digitally. (Wikipedia map)

The 2,700-circulation weekly is publishing an advertising tabloid and printing 10,000 extra copies for the local Chamber of Commerce to distribute, and sending three people to cover the race, co-owner Clay Warnick told Kentucky Press Association Executive Director David Thompson. "Any plans to make your coverage more timely by using your website?" Thompson asked. "After all, by the time the paper comes out the race results will be days old. Or by Facebook? or Twitter? or other social media? "No," Warnick replied. "We are old-school print mavens."

And old-school accountability journalists, too. Below the paper's main story last week, about major road construction going on hiatus for the races, was a report on the speedway appealing the county property valuation administrator's huge increase in its assessment, from $10.5 million to $58.5 million because it had finally landed a Sprint Cup race and doubled its seating capacity. (Click on page for larger version) To read the entire interview, click here.