New York family-owned, free weekly newspaper survives with hard-working owners, positivity, interaction with readers

    

(Cup Fabian Barra via Sunsplash)

Publisher Mark Frost does everything at The Chronicle in Glens Falls, NY, from writing stories and editorials, to delivering thousands of his free weekly to the racks. He probably would sweep the floor, too, if he could find it under the stacks of papers he has leafed through in his office, or if he could find the time. A photo of Frost in his office, among others, appears in a New York Times story by Erek Wimple, who uses The Chronicle as an example of how some locally-owned newspapers are refusing to die.

Wimple cites the stats: “Though nearly 3,500 newspapers have ceased publication since the mid-2000s, about 2,250 publications like The Chronicle” have held their own. “Large newspaper chains, the ones prone to consolidation, can’t be bothered with them.”

While The Chronicle hasn’t completely escaped potential demise — the pandemic nearly put it to bed — Frost says he has been able to rebound in part by staying connected with his readers. He engages with them when he fills the racks in places where readers, like they used to do in most small towns, stand in line waiting for the newspaper to arrive. Sometimes, however, he has to police the meaning of “free.” He tolerates a reader taking two or three to share with family and friends but when one customer grabbed a handful and told Frost he was “packing some glass,” Frost retrieved them.

Readership has retained its strength because of a focus on the readers, Wimple reports. Schools get heavy coverage, “along with town-hall meetings, local business happenings and, of course, parking.” Even more intensely local news has included such things a “the latest rattlesnake attack” or a “front-page feature on butchering a deer.”

Wimple describes some of the coverage as “boosterism,” noting the “sunny coverage” of restaurant openings as an example, and a tendency to either avoid the negative or move it deep inside the issue. “Our newspaper is more interested in who’s making progress than who’s screwing up,” Frost wrote in 2020. (Wimple researched more than 100 editions of The Chronicle for his report.)

The approach is not appreciated by more traditional journalists. Wimple cites one editor from The Post-Star in Baltimore, where Frost once worked, who said The Chronicle has lost credibility by cozying up to advertisers. But Frost countered that he has lost advertisers because of some coverage. And the paper’s politics are widely seen as middle of the road, or even unrecognizable.

The Chronicle may have a future, too. Frost is 75. He says there have been no offers to buy the paper. But Zander Frost, his 34-year-old son, has taken to the task, at least for now.

Commentary: Why one journalist traded covering national news for a small-town newspaper in Big Sky Country

After he left a national media career to become editor of the Glasgow Courier in Glasgow, Montana, this journalist began to see his writing and the news differently, writes Skylar Baker-Jordan, reflecting in The Daily Yonder on his journey to a new career in the "middle of nowhere."

"Within my first few hours of being in Valley County, I learned people are hungry for local news. A new face in Glasgow, a town of 3,202 people, folks immediately asked what brought me, a born and bred Appalachian, to the high plains of Montana," Baker-Jordan writes.

Once Glasgow residents learned Baker-Jordan was the Courier's new editor, he was inundated with town gossip, juicy conflicts and events the paper needed to investigate. He writes, "That thirst for local news is not unique to Glasgow, but it is increasingly difficult to quench. . . More than 130 local papers ceased publication in the past year alone."

As smaller newspapers close, fewer towns can rely on local reporting, which the "middle of nowhere" towns need more than most. Baker-Jordan adds, "Moving here was my chance to use my talents in the service of a community that needed an editor to help its local paper avoid this fate."

Baker-Jordan didn't decide to switch careers in an instant, but over time, while he was working as an editor at 100 Days in Appalachia, a nonprofit newsroom managed by and for Appalachians. He writes, "Suddenly, I was writing about and reporting on regional matters I’d long overlooked, and the response was overwhelming. In my entire career, the most gratitude I received from readers – the highest volume of responses – was to stories I wrote about local and regional matters."

He began to think about his past journalistic efforts differently. Baker-Jordan explains, "The sheer vitriol of the partisan press began to make my screeds feel less like a righteous contribution to public discourse and more like the very thing eroding trust in media and our civic institutions writ large."

Baker-Jordan doesn't see his new editing gig or his town as lesser than his career in the bigger national news arena. He writes, "Small towns deserve to see themselves reflected and taken seriously every bit as much as large urban areas or Congress and Wall Street. They deserve reporters and editors who are dedicated to telling their stories, to establishing a public record of their history and people."

Local News Day is April 9; it offers Americans opportunities to reconnect with the local news they trust

Thursday, April 9, is Local News Day across the USA.

Most Americans consider local media coverage to be their most important, trusted and reliable news source. On April 9, Local News Day will help millions of Americans in communities of all sizes reconnect with the local outlets they trust to provide coverage of recent events, hold leaders accountable and strengthen an overall sense of community. 

As part of the day, Rebuild Local News and the Online News Association will co-host “2026 State Policy Playbook for Newsrooms,” an online event for newsroom leaders and journalists offering a clear, practical overview of emerging policy models and guidance on how to engage policymakers effectively. Register here.

Local News Day also offers connection support and tools for nonprofit organizations and government offices that want to support their valued news resources. Local News Day will provide organizations with ready-to-use tools designed to engage communities and strengthen the trusted local news they rely on. Sign up by April 2.

Individuals looking to voice their support for the community strength local news provides can sign up for updates on Local News Day activities here. 

AI giants ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok all 'pilfer' stories from Canadian news outlets, a new audit finds

AI companies chose not to attribute their source materials.
(Photo by Markus Winkler, Unsplash)

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok all hijack Canadian news stories to use in their databases without adding legal attributions to stories pilfered from authors or arranging for copyright payment to publishers, according to an AI audit by Canadian researchers at McGill University, reports Brier Dudley, Free Press editor for The Seattle Times.

Professors Taylor Owen and Aengus Bridgman at McGill "tested four major AI models to see how much they knew about current news stories in Canada and how much credit they give to outlets that originally reported the stories," Dudley explains. The audit proved that tested AI models were "quite knowledgeable about current news stories. But in queries involving web searches, they provided no source attribution in 82% of the responses."

Owen and Bridgman write, "They have [taken and used content] without compensation, without attribution, and without any obligation to sustain the infrastructure they are drawing from. The result is a system that accelerates the economic decline of the journalism it relies on.”

The lack of attribution by AI companies is intentional. "When asked about a story from a specific outlet, the responses named the source 74% to 97% of the time," Dudley adds. "That indicates the companies are technically capable of naming sources but are making a 'design choice' not to, the audit states."

AI's pilfered stories let people get news without visiting the publisher's site or paying for a subscription. Dudley writes, "AI companies get the subscription and advertising revenue, instead of news sites that paid to report, edit and publish the stories."

Through the Online News Act, Canada now requires tech behemoths like Google and Meta that profit from using news sources to compensate publishers. With the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, the U.S. tried to pass protections similar to those adopted in Canada, but the bill faded in Congress in 2023. 

Dudley writes, "It’s past time for a new version of the JCPA, addressing how AI companies are changing the way people get information and preventing them from suffocating the local news industry. . . . To help get the ball rolling, I encourage academics in the U.S. to connect with Owen and Bridgman, who are willing to share their models, and produce similar audits here."

Tips and resources for reporting on crime data

The CDC has an active dashboard that maps death rates across the country 
by Census tract, county or state. (CDC map)

Tips from a recent webinar with three crime data experts, narrated by Clark Merrefield of The Journalist's Resource, can help local journalists report on crime trends, fact-check law enforcement, discuss policy, and foster a dialogue about community safety. An edited version of Merrefield's tips from the discussion is shared below.

Get to know The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, which meets three major needs for crime data research and reporting:

• The help desk, where anyone "can ask questions of reporters and editors at The Trace," Merrefield writes. "Reach out for help understanding gun violence in the areas you cover; collecting, cleaning and analyzing data on gun violence."
• A resource page that houses fact sheets, guides, and a glossary, which can aid in investigations of all sizes.
• The data library for "trustworthy data on a range of gun violence topics, from ghost guns to suicide to road rage," Merrefield notes. "The library includes data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Transportation Security Administration and many others."

Explore data focused on public safety research and data:

• The WONDER database from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes numbers on gun deaths and compressed mortality data.
• The Gun Violence Archive, which "tracks gun violence incidents across the country from more than 7,500 sources, including law enforcement agencies and news media reports," Merrefield writes.
• The Mapping Police Violence provides up-to-date data on police-involved killings in the U.S. 
• The CDC dashboard, which maps violent death rates across the country by Census tract, county or state. 

 Learn which data can help you fact-check statements from public officials.

"Beyond published data on reported crimes, victimization surveys are a major source of crime data that journalists can use to vet statements from officials," Merrefield explains. "The best known is the National Crime Victimization Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. This survey each year reaches a nationally representative sample of roughly 240,000 people and asks whether they have been victims of personal or property crimes — and why the crime was or wasn’t reported to police."

To identify trends in a specific area, aim for at least 5 years of data.

If data doesn't make sense, question it. If it can't be verified, don't use it.

Merrefield's webinar panel experts included: Jeffrey A. Butts, a research professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Executive Director of the John Jay Research and Evaluation Center; Mensah M. Dean, a staff writer at The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom that covers gun violence; and George LeVines, editor of The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, which is open to the public. 

Report for America seeks service-minded journalists and photographers: Application deadline is Feb. 16

Report for America, the national service program that places early-career and experienced journalists and photographers in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities, is accepting applications for new corps members.

The application deadline is Feb. 16, with references due by Feb. 23. The upcoming program start date is July 13. Apply here.

If you are passionate about service-minded journalism, you might be a good fit for one of RFA's 70 journalism positions open in newsrooms of all types, including digital startups, daily and weekly newspapers, and radio and TV stations. An interactive database of their openings, newsrooms and reporting beats is found here.

Report for America is a two-year program, with an optional third year. Their members are part of a national movement to strengthen communities and democracy through truthful, fair local journalism.

Answers to commonly asked questions can be found by reading FAQs. Contact the Report for America recruitment team at recruitment@reportforamerica.org. 

Reporting on winter weather offers unique opportunities for community service and local stories

National Guard soldiers push a stuck motorist’s vehicle in Indiana.
(Indiana National Guard photo, Flickr CC, via SEJ)

Old Man Winter is here, and he appears to be angry, which may be miserable for most of us; however, seasonal swings provide a unique opportunity for community reporters who can offer highly localized weather data and stories to help their readers with local forecasts, weather warnings, safety reminders and precautions specific to regional needs.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center may have a global reach, but it also "monitors all kinds of things that may make more local news near you," reports Joseph A. Davis for the Society of Environmental Journalists.

"Maybe you live in a water-scarce area like California or the Colorado River Basin. The NSIDC not only monitors seasonal snowpack but translates that into meltwater potential."

When reporting about weather, it's good to remember that not everyone can work from home and "some people have to slog to work to make trips possible for those who do," Davis writes. "Wintry conditions affect the lives of all kinds of people. Plow operators can look forward to double shifts. . . . . Restaurant workers could lose their jobs if they don’t show for work. Farmers can lose their crops or livestock, and older people stuck at home if their heat goes out could die."

Stories can cover how local medical clinics and rural hospitals prepare for snow and ice storms, or could explore how highway officials and snowplow operators prepare for extreme winter weather. 

Davis recommends these reporting resources: 

• National Weather Service: Depending on your perspective, you may want to check in with your local NWS office for forecasts and alerts.
• National Snow and Ice Data Center: Not only does it have ski reports, but it also puts them in terms of global climate.
• National Integrated Drought Information System: A multi-agency government/academic data portal on drought conditions; check out its snow drought data and maps.
• California Snowpack Maps: Because snowpack predicts water supply, Californians check snow often. Good maps with the state’s Department of Water Resources and with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest regional maps.
• SkiCentral: A commercial service tracking ski snow reports for the United States, Canada and beyond.
• OnTheSnow: A fairly good listing of snow conditions at most major ski areas. The site is ultimately aimed at getting paying guests to ski resorts.
• American Automobile Association: AAA offers travel advisories, although only to members of this road-travel service.

Study: Gen Z journalists may be avoiding rural newsrooms

Some younger journalists worry that rural newsrooms
might be too conservative for them. (Adobe Stock photo)

Gen Z journalists may be steered away from rural newsrooms due to a lack of knowledge in jobs available, as well as concerns of salary, politics, social life and career advancement potential, according to a new study involving students in the United States and Canada.

To examine why students in their late teens to early 20s are not attracted to working in rural areas, journalism professor Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas and instructor Tyler Nagel of Southern Alberta Institute of Technology surveyed 183 of their local mass communication students to ask how they felt about the possibility of reporting in rural communities, writes Tandy Lau for E&P Magazine.

Shared below is a Q&A on why some students who were surveyed find reporting in rural areas to be unappealing and what newsrooms may be able to do to attract younger journalists.

Q: Why aren’t more journalist students aware of available jobs in rural areas?
A: Some journalism schools are only teaching their students about journalism at a national level and not providing the context of journalism at a rural level. Eighty percent of Kansas respondents said they had not been taught about rural journalism in their classes at all, so they didn’t know what jobs there are available.

Q: Why are students concerned about salary?
A: While rural newsrooms often have a lower cost of living, students still have financial concerns. The Kansas respondents said they face student debt while the Canadian respondents face a current housing crisis.

Q: Why might students be concerned about politics?
A: Kansas students, particularly those with diverse backgrounds, responded they fear not being welcomed in rural communities due to polarizing politics and rural areas leaning red.

Q: How can rural newsrooms combat concerns of a lack of social life and career advancement opportunities?
A: Communicating with young journalists still in school is key in opening rural opportunities for them. Modernizing job descriptions, communicating opportunities to grow into leadership roles, creating a network for young journalists to socialize, and incentivizing the possibility of taking over a rural paper are a few of the recommendations by Finneman and Nagel after conducting their study.

Illinois publisher closes newspapers in five states, leaving some towns as 'news deserts'

The Brookings Register was the area's last local news source. 

Update: "Recently shuttered newspapers across Wyoming and South Dakota are set to publish again, after buyers stepped up within days to prevent the rural communities from becoming 'news deserts,' where little or no local media remains," reports Sarah Raza of The Associated Press. 

As of last week, 31 communities in the Midwest and the West no longer have a newspaper. "News Media Corp., which owns local newspapers across five states, said it will close 14 operations in Wyoming, seven in Illinois, five in Arizona, four in South Dakota and one in Nebraska," report Sarah Raza and Jack Dura of The Associated Press.

While newspapers have closed all around the United States, when a rural area loses its only local news source, the void is unlikely to be replaced by another paper or online publication. "The U.S. has lost over one-third of its print newspapers and two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2004," Raza and Dura explain. "NMC’s closure affects longtime newspapers that were often the primary source of news in numerous small towns, worsening the problem of news deserts in rural areas."

The company's CEO, J.J. Tompkins, listed the current financial woes of the news industry alongside a failed bid to sell the company as the reason for the sudden closures. "Hundreds of employees were terminated immediately, and Tompkins wrote that the company will make 'reasonable efforts to pay you all remaining compensation you have earned,'" Raza and Dura write. Even upper management at many of the papers told AP they did not see the closure coming.

The Brookings Register in South Dakota was the town's last news source. The town's mayor said "the closure of his town’s newspaper 'absolutely' leaves a big hole in the community," AP reports. "He liked the newspaper’s commentary for fostering conversations. The reporters did a great job telling readers what was going on in Brookings, a city of about 25,000 people." 

A new study shows the 'surprising breadth of student reporting' in the United States

College students are working to keep American journalism connected and relevant in the communities they serve. A recent study by the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont used "FCC data, original research and outreach to stations to map the extraordinary overlap between America’s colleges and its public media outlets," reports CNN. Their research shows the "surprising breadth and scope of college student journalism at public media organizations." A few research highlights include:

• 88% of public media organizations provide opportunities for college students to help cover their community (282 of 319 NPR and/or PBS affiliates.)
• 59% of public media organizations provide intensive, regular and ongoing opportunities for college students (188 of 319 stations.)
• Some public media organizations (41 of 319) make teaching students their core mission.
• Students at these public media organizations serve rural, suburban and urban audiences, many in news deserts. Public radio signals reach over 95% of Americans.
• 50% of all public media organizations are licensed to a college or university (161 of 319 stations.)

Yellow circles indicate some level of student reporting. Grey circles indicate little or no student reporting. Eighty-eight percent of NPR stations provide opportunities for college students.

Study researchers suggest that "even more student journalists could contribute to public media organizations through deeper news/academic partnerships involving both internships and in-class production."

Bots scrub local news created by other journalists to publish newsletters in 355 towns; one 'editor' oversees them all

Photo via Nieman Labs

Matthew Henderson might be the most productive "journalist" in the country. The busy publisher of Good Daily newsletters "operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S.," reports Andrew Deck of Nieman Labs. Henderson's newsletter empire is fueled by busy bots scrubbing local news created by real humans to create newsletters. The publication is emailed to unsuspecting residents who have no idea machines wrote their news by taking the real work at other publications.

Deck uses Good Day Fort Collins as an example. The newsletter "appears to be a standard local news round-up. One recent edition of the newsletter includes short blurbs and links to over a dozen stories about the mid-size Colorado city — a restaurant opening, a record-breaking snowfall," Deck writes. "It turns out Good Day Fort Collins is just one in a network of AI-generated newsletters. . . Not only do these hundreds of newsletters share the same exact seven testimonials, they also share the same branding. . . "

Newsletter recipients are unaware of "who" generated their news or how un-local its creation is. "Separate website domains and distinct newsletter names make it difficult to connect the dots. There is Good Day Rock Springs, Daily Bentonville, Today in Virginia Beach," Deck explains. "The newsletters do all name the same founder and editor: Matthew Henderson, who a serial internet startup founder and software engineer."

In an interview, "Henderson didn’t shy away from the fact that each newsletter is produced using near full automation," Deck reports. "These automated agents 'read the news' in every town where Good Daily operates, curate the most relevant stories, summarize them, edit and approve the copy, format it into a newsletter, and publish." Henderson told Deck, "“At a high level, [the system] operates much like an editorial team" -- except, of course, for the fact that his publications do no original reporting and only take from others doing the real work.  

Henderson touts his bot news as "boosting the work of struggling local news outlets," Deck writes. Henderson told him, "Local news providers appreciate our work promoting their best local content for free, and often seek out ways for us to promote even more of their content.”

The news outlets Henderson's AI brains are using don't share Henderson's "rosy" view. Rodney Gibbs, the head of audience and product at the National Trust for Local News, told Deck, "His claim is, frankly, horses---. The suggestion that he’s helping news deserts is absurd." Deck adds, "Gibbs points out that, in order to operate, AI newsletters rely on human labor at existing local news publishers."

Report for America offers dozens of positions for passionate journalists. Application deadline is Feb. 3.

Report for America, the national service program that places service-minded journalists and photographers in local newsrooms, is accepting applications for new corps members.

The application deadline is Feb. 3, with references due by Feb. 10. Apply here.

RFA is a two-year program, with an optional third year. Applicants need a minimum of 1 to 3 years of local news experience. Recent graduates may apply if they’ve had local newsroom internships or journalism leadership experience in college. The upcoming service year begins on July 7, and runs through July 6, 2026.

RFA corps members are part of a national movement to strengthen communities and democracy through truthful, fair local journalism. The program offers members a range of media placements, including digital startups, daily and weekly newspapers, and radio and TV stations.

To view RFA's interactive database of job openings, newsrooms and beats, click here. For more details about joining RFA, upcoming informational sessions can be found here.

Report for America is a national service program that places early-career and experienced journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities across the United States and its territories.

Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.

Community newspapers can benefit from more effective promotion and marketing

Benjy Hamm

By Benjy Hamm

Director, Institute for Rural Journalism

ESPN has long promoted itself as the “worldwide leader in sports.” You can forgive its audience if they don’t realize that ESPN has been losing millions of customers who have been “cutting the cord” from cable and satellite TV.

ESPN’s long-time business model -- and that of cable TV -- has been collapsing in recent years, even though it remains profitable and has retained a loyal audience. Sound familiar? But in the face of many difficulties, ESPN has never stopped relentlessly and effectively promoting its shows, content, employees and overall brand.

When I talk to my students and community groups, most people have a highly favorable opinion of ESPN and overestimate its average audience and business outlook.

Compared to ESPN and most TV and radio stations, newspapers are reticent to promote themselves, outside of an occasional story about awards they’ve won, a house ad during National Newspaper Week or subscription flyers. That approach is grounded in a news philosophy 200 years old that valued the anonymity of journalists – emphasizing that the stories are more important. And it has continued for other reasons, too, including the fact that many newspaper journalists don’t see the need for promotion, and some even find it unseemly.

Our modesty – and in many cases silence – about the value of what journalists do and the importance of strong community newspapers might have worked OK when the media world was less competitive and newspapers were flourishing. But in this era of an attention economy and endless demands on people’s time, a lack of marketing and promotion is damaging.

That vacuum also has allowed others to define us, and frequently in extremely negative terms. When I speak to community groups or at events, even loyal newspaper readers express concerns that “no one reads a newspaper” anymore, that newspapers are dying and that “everyone gets their news on their phone.” You know that’s not true. A lot of people read your stories, your great journalism changes lives and changes laws, and the cell phones people use are simply another way news and information is delivered.

When I ask community members how well their phone covers local council meetings, they are often confused by the question. But we know the answer. It doesn’t. The local community newspaper journalist is frequently the only person covering those meetings. Even much of the discussion about community news on social media is commentary on facts reported by journalists, not original reporting by social media sources.

We probably all know what it’s like to be the only person – not just journalist – in the audience at a local meeting, budget session or court hearing. Community newspapers produce a significant amount of original, exclusive content in their communities. Yet, few people realize those facts.

If we don’t promote our work, who will? If we don’t develop marketing campaigns for our news organizations, staff and products (Ex. special sections), then residents won’t fully value what the newspaper means to that community.

Allowing other people to define community newspapers hurts in other ways, too. Large foundations that plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to support journalism in the United States are proposing spending millions on digital start-ups or giving large sums of money to urban news organizations to increase their coverage of rural areas. There’s little talk about helping the thousands of newspapers already in existence in these communities. I have heard these large funders speak at conferences, and they do not seem to know much about the strengths and importance of community newspapers.

Not all of these problems are new. When I worked at a newspaper in South Carolina, we were surprised to see the results of a study that measured the most trusted sources for news in our region. The TV stations ranked highest in every category, even though local newspapers produced many more stories overall and were responsible for nearly all of the major investigative and enterprise coverage.

The researcher said the results were similar in every region where he conducted surveys, and he attributed it to how often TV stations promoted their work and their journalists – in addition to that personal “connection” of seeing someone on TV. He said newspapers did little or no promotion and took for granted that residents would understand their value and recognize their outstanding qualities.

I have seen examples of newspapers that effectively promote what they do – in print, online, through social media and at community events. In many cases, the ones that do well with promotion and marketing are in competitive markets.

At the Institute for Rural Journalism, we would like to learn more about the ways that community newspapers are successfully promoting themselves and the overall importance of good journalism in local communities.

If you have examples that have proved successful, please send them to me at benjy.hamm@uky.edu. I will follow up in a future column with your ideas. In the meantime, if you’re not doing much promotion, consider ways your newspaper can help residents realize that you’re the leader in local news coverage for that area and that what you do is of huge value to the community. Feel free to reach out if you are unsure of what to do.

Benjy Hamm is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, which is based at the University of Kentucky. He previously served as editorial director for Landmark Community Newspapers, as an editor for The New York Times Regional Newspaper Group and as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press.