Editor sees 'perfect storm for the resurrection of journalism at the community level' with tools for new revenue

Cover of Baranowski's report

"A confluence of political, economic and journalistic root causes have created a perfect storm for the resurrection of community journalism at the hyper-local level, despite the prevailing and oft-perpetuated belief that newspapers are doomed by emergent technology," Iowa Falls editor Tony Baranowski begins his report, Black and White and Undead All Over, for the NewStart program at West Virginia University.

Baranowski says the way is shown by papers that "steadfastly clung to traditional models of serving their communities and partners while simultaneously leveraging new tools to diversify revenue streams," such as video, email newsletters, full-service advertising agencies and that old standby that many papers dropped, job printing, with the addition of screen printing. 

Such papers tend not to be chain-owned, he writes: "The strongest community news outlets are locally owned and managed by families or individuals with local ties that stretch back decades." But he gives examples of locally owned papers that have become flagships of small chains that benefit from some centralization and consolidation of functions.

Baranowski is director of local media for Times Citizen Communications in Iowa Falls. His project, which concluded a year-long NewStart fellowship ending with a master's degree, focused on the Upper Midwest, but he also conducted a survey of more than 50 small-town publishers. By far, they said social media were the "primary competition/obstacle as it relates to revenue." Baranowski and his sources offer no solution to that problem, but the points they do make can be useful to rural newspapers looking for new paths to sustainability.

  

This isn't just about newspapers, Baranowski writes: "Good newspapers are as integral to the survival of rural America as just about any bellwether."