Columbia Journalism Review series on 4 towns and election starts with rural Virginia county that lost its only newspaper

A fast-growing rural county that lost its only newspaper two years ago is the focus of the first in a series of articles for Columbia Journalism Review and The Delacorte Review, under the title "The Year of Fear: Four American towns on the way to November."

Caroline County, Virginia, has about 31,000 people, more than half again as many as it had 30 years ago, as it becomes a bedroom community for Richmond and Fredericksburg. It's broadly representative; 28 percent of the population is African American, and nearly 5% is Hispanic or Latino, Greg Glassner reports: "Caroline County is one of the last rural areas along the Interstate 95 corridor and has yet to be overrun by apartment complexes and commercial development." In 2016, it was one of five Virginia counties that supported Donald Trump (by 5 percentage points) after voting twice for Barack Obama (by 12 and 8 points, respectively).

The Ashland paper in 2015 (Google Maps photo via The Free Lance-Star)

"For ninety-nine years, the residents of Caroline County were served by a lively weekly newspaper, the Caroline Progress, which was family-owned and -operated for most of its existence," Glassner writes. "Staff size and page count dwindled after the paper was purchased by a Tennessee-based chain in 2007." The chain is Lakeway Publishers, based in Morristown, Tenn. The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg reported in March 2018, "The newspapers' corporate leaders determined the papers were no longer 'commercially viable.'" The company also closed the Herald-Progress in Ashland in Hanover County, closer to the state capital of Richmond.

In Caroline County, Glassner asks, "How are the residents of this county dealing with the loss of their local newspaper, and what impact will it have on their lives and political decisions in 2020? These and other issues will be explored in later dispatches." The rest of the piece is mainly a historical travelogue, giving readers background for future articles. One passage:

Caroline County (Wikipedia map)

"Bowling Green, population 1,166, is the sleepy county seat in the approximate center of the county and looks much the same as it did fifty or even 100 years ago, although a few storefronts that once housed mom and pop businesses are vacant. Most county residents drive to Hanover County to the south or suburban Fredericksburg to the north for their shopping, dining, and entertainment. This was a bustling community during World War II, when Fort A.P. Hill was quickly created to meet the training needs for a rapidly growing U.S. Army. The 77,000-acre military outpost still occupies a large chunk of the county and as many as 70,000 soldiers and airmen receive short-term training here each year, though the base’s permanent party of military and civilian employees is minuscule. While local residents are patriotic, the fact that the Army post removes 22% of the landmass from the local tax base while contributing little to the local economy is a source of friction. . . . Seventy percent of the county’s workforce commutes to jobs beyond the county’s borders. Many drive as far away as the D.C. Beltway or to Richmond." Read more here.