Jeremy Gulban is serious about saving local newspapers. 'It’s kind of crazy,' but he's trying to find a way.

Jeremy Gulban

Jeremy Gulban is a man on a mission to save at least 92 community newspapers from shuttering their doors. While he's out in the trenches facing tariffs, polarized audiences and stiff competition, "Gulban is discovering in ways large and small just how hard it is to revive America’s ailing local news outlets," reports Katherine Sayre of The Wall Street Journal. "Americans are increasingly distrustful of print media, podcasts are ascendant as go-to news sources and even finding human reporters to hire has proven tough."

Over the past five years, Gulban has purchased dozens of small newspapers through his company, CherryRoad Media. "Today, the top 30 or so of Gulban’s newspapers are profitable, about 30 post mediocre results and about 30 are losing money. The company had $30 million in revenue last year and wasn’t profitable overall," Sayre writes. "Gulban needs between 15% and 20% of households in his communities to subscribe to be economically viable. . . . Across the company, about 8% of households subscribe now, but that ranges from 2% to 69%, depending on the paper."

Gulban began his foray into print news because he felt "that big tech companies like Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google had too much control over the flow of information and commerce for local businesses," Sayre explains. Gulban told her, "If we made the rational business decision, we would take our best-performing markets, say that’s what we’re going with. But that’s not what I want to do. I want to figure out how to make this work.”

Part of Gulban's plan was to hire dedicated reporters who interact with their community. "In some markets, Gulban can’t find reporters willing to do the job," Sayre adds. "The company searched for two years for a full-time reporter at its Crookston Daily Times in Minnesota, offering a salary of $40,000. The newspaper was shuttered in February."

Some people in small towns have reached out directly to Gulban for help. "Kitty Mayo and other residents in the area of Two Harbors, Minn., lobbied Gulban to start a newspaper there after the Lake County News-Chronicle closed in 2020," Sayre reports. "Gulban agreed. The Lake County Press launched in 2022. Mayo said she asked an editor at another CherryRoad newspaper about Gulban before she contacted him. The editor told her: 'This guy, he’s legit. He wants to save small newspapers. It’s kind of crazy. I don’t know if he can do it.'"

USDA cuts and freezes 'ripple' through rural communities, leaving farmers and states scrambling to manage losses

USDA cuts 'are being keenly felt' in Appalachia.
(Adobe Stock photo)

U.S. Department of Agriculture funding cuts and freezes have left farmers and states struggling with supply issues, financial losses and budget shortages. "Along the winding back roads and Appalachian hollers of West Virginia, in a state where Trump won 70% of the votes cast, his administration's vow to cut back on government spending is being keenly felt," reports P.J. Huffstutter of Reuters. Some states may be forced to shutter programs because there isn't enough money to cover gaping budget shortfalls.

In one of its first major cuts, the USDA canceled the "Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which was due to provide about $500 million this year to food banks," Huffstutter explains. "Trump's administration also rolled out cuts to other federal funding that has kept small agriculture businesses open."

For decades, Washington has used "an intricate web of economic support. . . to pump money into rural America," Huffstutter writes. "Much of it has now been frozen, cut back or eliminated – including at least $1.5 billion in USDA funds for schools and food banks."

To help contain the damage, states are "forced to come up with funding from their own budgets – or shutter programs altogether," Huffstutter adds. "States like West Virginia – where more than half the $19.2 billion annual budget for fiscal 2025 relies on federal funds – are particularly hard-hit. . . . Federal funds on average comprise about one-third of states' annual spending."

Meanwhile, some farmers have excess production that was planned for a Local Food for Schools contract. Kentucky farmer Andre Faul's 1,300-pound problem serves as an example. "His farm had a contract with Oldham County Schools to provide chicken and pork for school lunches," reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "But Faul and 130 Kentucky farmers who were paid through a federal program were notified the USDA nixed the grant. . . . How was Faul going to pay for the 1,300 pounds of chicken Oldham County had already ordered and he had already paid for and fed?"

Madison Pergrem, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, told Musgrave, "The LFPA program has significantly supported Kentucky agriculture and delivered fresh, local products to our communities in need. . . .KDA will actively pursue and develop new opportunities to advance these efforts.”

Musgrave adds, "Kentucky food programs were started to help local food production and expand markets for smaller growers."

The physical presence of modern technology encroaches over farmland and behind homes

Power lines for Virginia data center may reach across 
Maryland farmland. (Photo by Gary Meulemans, Unsplash)

As the desire for "more" pushes technology to grow and advance, so does the need for electricity to supply its physical growth.

Institutions and businesses used to have their own data centers, but in the past 15 years they began using third parties to house them and warehouses (or computer hotels) followed in quick succession, said Jon Hukill, spokesperson for the Data Center Coalition, according to Stephanie Hanes.

Hanes explored the impact that data centers and their electricity needs are having on communities and farmers in Maryland and Virginia, in an article for The Christian Science Monitor. These data centers are now bumping up to residential areas and the power lines to supply them are proposed to come from New Jersey, through Maryland farms, to the centers in Virginia.

“The industrial scale of data centers makes them largely incompatible with residential uses… And industry trends make future residential impacts more likely,” said Mark Gribbin, chief legislative analyst for Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Hanes said Gribbin's research found that a third of data centers were now located near homes.

The concerns of the residents affected vary, but they are worrying. Brent Hunsinger, a local river steward, expressed his fears to Hanes, “With data centers, the effects are more distributed…There’s water; there’s the electricity demand, also the transmission lines.” 

U.S. Supreme Court looks poised to allow $8 billion for rural and low-income broadband and phone services

The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.
(Adobe Stock photo)

The U.S. Supreme Court seems likely to approve continued funding for an $8 billion program for broadband and phone service maintenance and expansion in rural and poor parts of the U.S., reports Mark Sherman of The Associated Press. In what is considered a "new test of federal regulatory power," justices are "reviewing an appellate ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the Universal Service Fund, the tax that has been added to phone bills for nearly 30 years."

John Fritze of CNN reports, "A conservative 'consumer awareness group' challenged [USF] as an unconstitutional 'delegation' of the power of Congress to levy taxes. What’s worse, the group argues, a private entity calculates the amount of money that must be contributed. . . . .The Supreme Court has not invoked the non-delegation doctrine – or the idea that Congress cannot delegate its authority – since the 1930s. It has, for decades, permitted delegations under certain conditions."

The court seem sympathetic to communities that receive USF dollars. Sherman reports, "Liberal and conservative justices alike said they were concerned about the potentially devastating consequences of eliminating the fund that has benefited tens of millions of Americans."

Should the conservative-led court uphold USF funding, the ruling will be a departure from its ongoing efforts to "rein in" federal agencies, Sherman writes. "The Trump administration, which has moved aggressively to curtail administrative agencies in other areas, is defending the FCC program."

Consumer Research calls USF "a 'nightmare scenario' in which Congress has set no limits on how much the FCC can raise to fund the program," Sherman reports. “'Predictably, the USF tax rate has skyrocketed. It was under 4% in 1998 but now approaches 37%,' lawyers for the group wrote."

Congress established the Universal Service Fund in 1996. Fritze explains, "Telecommunications companies contribute billions to that fund – a cost that is passed on to consumers – to pay for programs like E-Rate, which lowers the cost of high-speed internet for libraries and schools."

The court's decision is expected in June.

Rural letter carriers rally against USPS privatization; about 51.3 million rural Americans could be impacted

More than 100 rural letter carriers gathered to rally
against USPS privatization. (The Daily Yonder photo)

Rural letter carriers from around the country gathered last week at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to "rally in support of the U.S. Postal Service, which they said faces an increasing threat of privatization under President Donald Trump," reports Julia Tilton for The Daily Yonder. "The rally was attended by members of Congress from both sides of the aisle."

The event also announced the "launch of the NRLCA’s National Campaign to Protect the U.S. Postal Service from Privatization, which the union said is its top priority to preserve what it calls a 'critical institution that serves rural America and the country at large,'" Tilton writes. "Approximately 51.3 million rural addresses would be disproportionately impacted by the privatization of the USPS, according to NRLCA National President Don Maston."

Part of the USPS service mandate is to get mail and packages across the "last miles," which can add to delivery expenses. Tilton explains, "It is unprofitable for private companies to deliver mail to the end of long dirt roads located 50 or 100 miles from the nearest post office, Maston said. Privatization would add surcharges to such rural deliveries, which include essential goods like prescription medications and documents like Social Security checks and ballots."

Maston told the Yonder: “Rural Americans rely on rural carriers. In fact, the entire community relies on the rural carrier, and that sense of community would be taken away, and the disproportionately impacted group in the Postal Service would be rural carriers, rural Americans, and rural communities.”

Rally speakers "called for bipartisan support for House Resolution 70, a resolution in the House of Representatives that affirms the Postal Service’s role as a federal institution and opposes privatization," Tilton adds. "Since being introduced at the end of January, the resolution has garnered 180 cosponsors. . . . After the rally, more than 100 rural postal workers headed to meetings with members of Congress to ask for their support in backing the USPS."

As the battle over water fluoridation continues, rural Americans are at risk for higher rates of tooth decay

Thirteen states and the counties in gray don't report data on fluoride and drinking water to CDC.
(Map by Brett Kelman, Harvard University study from Census and CDC data)

As states consider banning tap water fluoridation mandates, rural America may be at risk for higher rates of tooth decay and its accompanying health problems. "Dozens of communities have decided to stop fluoridating in recent months, and state officials in Florida and Texas have urged their water systems to do the same," reports Brett Kelman of KFF Health News. "Utah is poised to become the first state to ban it in tap water."

Advocates for banning water fluoridation often cite "a government report last summer that found a possible link between lower IQ in children and consuming amounts of fluoride that are higher than what is recommended in American drinking water," Kelman explains. "The report was based on an analysis of 74 studies conducted in other countries, most of which were considered 'low quality' and involved exposure of at least 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water — or more than twice the U.S. recommendation."

Even as the battle over fluoridation continues, rural Americans already struggle to access basic dental care. Kelman reports, "Republican efforts to extend tax cuts and shrink federal spending may squeeze Medicaid, which could deepen existing shortages of dentists in rural areas where many residents depend on the federal insurance program for whatever dental care they can find."

Removing fluoride from rural water sources could exacerbate dental decay and the numerous other health problems it causes. "Dental experts warn that the simultaneous erosion of Medicaid and fluoridation could exacerbate a crisis of rural oral health," Kelman writes. "The changes could reverse decades of progress against tooth decay, particularly for children and those who rarely see a dentist."

Rural America already has large pockets with few dentists and unfluoridated water. A Harvard study "identified over 780 counties where more than half of the residents live in a [dentist] shortage area. Of those counties, at least 230 also have mostly or completely unfluoridated public drinking water," Kellman explains. "That means people in these areas who can’t find a dentist also do not get protection for their teeth from their tap water."

Several peer-reviewed studies give a glimpse into what ending water fluoridation could look like. Kelman writes, "Studies of cities in Alaska and Canada have shown that communities that stopped fluoridation saw significant increases in children’s cavities when compared with similar cities that did not."

Many Americans favor fluoridation, but "a sizable minority does not," Kelman notes. "Polls from Axios/Ipsos and AP-NORC found that 48% and 40% of respondents wanted to keep fluoride in public water supplies, while 29% and 26% supported its removal."