Small weekly examines the state of Virginia's newspapers in advance of Richmond summit to discuss crisis in local news

By Al Cross
Director and Professor, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

The Rappahannock News, in a small Northern Virginia county of 7,500 people, has been able to to many things few small weekly newspapers can, thanks to the Foothills Forum, a local foundation that finances specialized reporting. Now they have outdone themselves with a comprehensive package about the newspapers all over the Old Dominion.

Under the headline, "As some newspapers struggle, local news is harder to find in Virginia," former Associated Press assistant Washington bureau chief Christopher Connell reports that "about 42" Virginia newspapers closed or were merged into other papers since 2004, "and that total doesn’t include several other weeklies that closed or merged this year." The figure comes from the State of Local News Initiative, started by Penny Abernathy at the University of North Carolina, now at Northwestern University.

Anne Adams of The Recorder in Monterey, Va., is one of
the success stories highlighted in the Rapp News report.

"Those still standing have suffered deep staff cuts," Connell reports. "Many of the bigger papers have retreated from parts of the state they used to cover from satellite bureaus. Now they only pay attention outside their market when something big happens, like a natural disaster or juicy scandal." But do the people of Virginia realize what's going on?

Clark Hoyt, retired vice president of the Knight-Ridder chain that sold to McClatchy Co. in 2006, told Connell, “People aren’t really aware of the extent to which traditional journalism, with a set of values and proper procedures, has wilted away. You don’t have people covering school boards, city and county commissions, courthouses and police departments on a regular basis.”

The main story includes several examples of what happens when the local newspaper closes. Sidebars look at leaders in Virginia local news, highlighting Publisher Anne Adams of The Recorder in the mountain town of Monterey; an editorial, "Let's work together to save Virginia local news;" and a column by Publisher Dennis Brack about the Rapp News: "Thanks to you, your local news institution is strong." The package advances an April 20-21 summit in Richmond called by Foothills Forum, Virginia Humanities and the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy to discuss "what to do about the crisis in local news coverage," Connell writes.

This package could, and should, be replicated in other states. Local looks at the local-news crisis may be seen as self-serving, and national stories rarely make clear the local relevance. But when people in Virginia read about closures of newspapers in places they know about, it has more meaning to readers. And it often helps to have a big graphic (click on it for a larger, clearer version):