Local papers give communities 'identity' by reporting local events and celebrations that would otherwise go unrecorded

Rita Sharp, owner of the Lucas-Sylvan News
(Photo by Lori Brack, Kansas Reflector)

When the Marion County Record reported a police raid on their newsroom last month, dozens of U.S. press organizations took notice, and suddenly, the Record and its doggedly honest reporting style received national and even international attention. But that attention didn't also showcase how many strong local newspapers Kansas can boast, reports Lori Brack of the Kansas Reflector. "It's our responsibility to champion publisher Eric Meyer's determination to cover cops, courts and city and county without fear or favor. I encourage us to remember, once the attention drifts from Marion, that many small and smaller newspapers in Kansas also deserve our support. . . . In July, the Lucas-Sylvan News–one of 188 weekly papers in Kansas today–celebrated 135 years in Lucas. "

Rita Sharp has owned the Lucas-Sylvan News weekly since 2012. "It covers the towns of Lucas in Russell County and Sylvan Grove, 12 miles away in Lincoln County," Brack writes. "Sharp's paper has weathered the coronavirus pandemic, the rise of social media as a source for news and advertising, and the aging and shrinking population in Lucas (pop. 337) and Sylvan Grove (pop. 285). Without missing an issue, even when the pandemic closed schools, city and county businesses, and events, Sharp continued publishing. She mails about 450 copies a week to local residents and readers across the country, a circulation that keeps dropping."

Brack reports: "And as it happens, Sharp is selling more papers each week—from $30 to $44 a year for online, in-state, or out-of-state subscriptions—than there are households in Lucas and Sylvan. This [circulation] indicates the importance of the news to residents and those who want to stay in touch with their hometowns. If ads and subscriptions stop supporting small newspapers, this community-building record of births, deaths, high school graduations, 4-H activities and library programs also goes away.

"Each issue is an entertaining reading experience from the front page to the advertisements and obituaries, almost always highlighting children's activities in sports, scholarship, arts, and service."

Sharp told Brack: "People ought to know having a newspaper is an identity for a town, just like having a school and a post office. The printed word is our richest resource there is."