The Examiner's June 2 front page |
In a long editorial column on May 19, headlined "You'll miss us," Publisher Hannah Heishman said that reading social-media discussion about a local controversy made her realize that "People in Hardy County do not realize the newspaper is a valid, formal source of information." After a bit of a primer about the civic role of newspapers ("helping keep your government honest by ensuring you know what they're doing"), the virtues of local ownership ("zero reason not to tell the truth about what we see and hear"), and debunking various myths about journalism, Heishman gave readers the bottom line: "Fewer people read the paper, so fewer people advertise; less money comes in; I can't pay staff, postage or printing, so the paper gets smaller, and the cycle repeats until we close. Once we close, there is no one behind us. No one. No local or county government coverage. . . . No youth or school sports. No Hardy-specific obituaries." Papers in other counties "can't afford to cover us any more than we can afford to cover them."
Hardy County (Wikipedia map) |
Explaining the June 2 edition, Heishman wrote, "Front-page stories are elsewhere in the paper and there will be a paper next week. If we all don’t start caring and enabling local news, though, the future is grim, and not far off — not just in Moorefield, but for any locally owned, community newspaper." After the paper came out, she told Don Smith of the West Virginia Press Association, “We are taken for granted. . . . We made them think about it today. We have gotten calls and emails about the newspaper, about subscribing and advertising. They care today, but how will they feel in six weeks?”
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