Pick-your-own produce model offers farmers benefits and risks; it's part of agri-tourism, which has tripled since 2002

Tanner's Orchard near Speer, Ill., has offered U-pick since 1947.
The orchard has 11,000 apple trees. (Photo from Tanner's website)

Strawberries, peaches, berries, apples, pumpkins and a delightful December pine: The list of pick-your-own wonderfulness can start in May and go through year's end. But U-pick origins were born out of desperation, and in a culture of "instant-everything," its success is a curiosity.

"The concept first emerged during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when prices for fruit and vegetable crops reached historically low levels as war-torn countries began to recover and no longer relied on U.S. exports," reports Shelby Vittek of Ambrook Research. "For many growers, it was cheaper to leave their crops in the field to rot than to harvest and sell them for a pittance. That's when a ragtag bunch of cherry growers in Wisconsin decided to offer their fruit directly to the public for pennies a pound. The only catch was they'd have to come out to the farm to pick the cherries themselves. And so the bustling pick-your-own industry was born."

The model offers benefits, "reduces a farm's reliance on labor for harvesting, and eliminates the need for working with distributors, giving farms immediate access to the profits," Vittek writes. "Agritourism has boomed over the last two decades, with revenue more than tripling from 2002 to 2017. According to the USDA, agritourism revenue grew from $704 million in 2012 to $950 million in 2017. Pick-your-own farms have played a key role in that growth."

Pick-your-own operations also have unique costs and risks. Megan Bruch Leffew, a value-added agriculture marketing specialist at the University of Tennessee, told Vittek, "Consumers don't often know how to appropriately pick and can damage plants, so there's a loss aspect that needs to be built in when folks are pricing product." Also, "You need some added risk management and insurance," and "People are going to need access to a restroom, handwashing, and other things."

Poor weather "has the potential to wipe out an entire crop for a U-pick farm," Vittek notes. "This year, fruit growers across the country have experienced significant crop loss after erratic weather. Georgia lost more than 90% of its peach crop this year due to an abnormally warm winter."

But pick-your-own seems to have crowd appeal, even when a crop is scarce. "Our culture is starving for connections to nature. It's one more way that people can feel connected — connected to their food, connected to where they live," Anu Rangarajan, director of the Cornell University Small Farm Program, told Vittek. "U-picks do a huge service for connecting people to our food system, and especially the seasonality of food … and [gives farmers] the opportunity to have important conversations with people who can support agriculture more actively."

To sustain themselves, innovative rural newspapers develop alternative revenue sources, including a nonprofit element

Jack Rooney, left, and David Woronoff spoke to the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America.

Two of America's most innovative rural newspapers, a weekly and a daily, are following very different strategies to sustain their journalism in the digital age. They were the focus of a session July 7 at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, sponsored by the Institute for Rural Jouranalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog).

Alternative revenue sources are the reason The Pilot, a twice-weekly in Southern Pines, N.C., has 11 newsroom employees, Publisher David Woronoff said. At The Keene Sentinel in southwest New Hampshire, reader donations are supporting journalism, especially a nonprofit subsidiary focused on health, said Jack Rooney, the daily's managing editor for audience development.

Woronoff led off the session by saying, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. If the only tool you have is a newspaper, then the solution to all of your community's information and marketing needs is going to be – surprise, surprise – more newspaper.  . . . Sometimes you need a glossy magazine to to solve that information need. And sometimes you need a daily email newsletter, or sometimes you need a annual phone book, or sometimes you need a independent bookstore. And that and that's what we do. . . . We're in the community-building business, and news just happens to be the service we render."

Woronoff said The Pilot is 30% larger than it was when he and his partners bought it 27 years ago, "but it only represents 25% of our total enterprise. So we have stretched that overhead across a lot of revenue, which gives us the ability to finance our journalism. So that's why, in a relatively rural community, we have an 11-person newsroom. . . . We're able to produce that sort of journalistic heft because we have expanded beyond just being a newspaper."

More than half of The Pilot's revenue comes from magazines and similar products: PineStraw, a free-circulation monthly; The Sway, an email newsletter aimed at millennials; Business North Carolina, which has several products including a daily newsletter and events; South Park, a monthly delivered to some Charlotte Observer subscirbers; the North Carolina Tribune, a daily politics and public-policy newsletter; and Walter and O. Henry, magazines for Raleigh and Greensboro, respectively.

Eleven percent of revenue comes from a local bookstore that "was getting ready to fail," Woronoff said. "Not the wisest investment I ever made, but I just couldn't imagine our little town without an independent bookstore in it. And I think it says something about our community that we can afford one and it's become part of the cultural tapestry of our community. Last year we had a hundred authors come to the town, most of them for free. . . . I would argue that that's part of serving your community is not just putting news in the newspaper. It's creating this cultural appreciation. And by being a convener of our of the people in our community, we are making ourselves more relevant."

"Relevance is the coin of the realm," Woronoff said at another point. "If you are it not relevant to your community, if all you are as a newspaper, then your relevance is going to diminish." An example is The Sway, produced by "a bunch of 20 somethings," which has 20,000 free subscribers. "It's written in the voice of a 20-something female, a very sassy, irreverent tone. . . . It makes us relevant to an important segment of our community that we don't, we wouldn't, reach with just the newspaper."

Woronoff acknowledged that he's in a catbird seat, in a golf-centric area with above-average income that is comfortably close to, but not overwhelmed by, three metropolitan areas. For his formula to work, he said, "You have to have a vibrant commercial business community. You've got to have a vibrant retail community. . . . but we think there are a lot of communities out there who can do this . . . If you want to try it in your market. The first thing you have to accept is that you have to be more than just a newspaper."

The Keene Sentinel is doing that, in another way. Its Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab, which "operates as a nonprofit, essentially," is "a testing ground to develop new ideas and find ways to reach new audiences and grow revenue," Rooney said. "The lab is completely donor-funded through a combination of grants, some individual kind of high-dollar donors in our community who we've identified and who really see the value in what we're providing," plus "constant crowd-funding."

"Journalists, historically, are not very good at telling their own stories of their organizations to garner that support," Rooney said, so the paper does annual community-impact reports, and does a seperate one for the health-reporting lab, which says, in effect, "Here's the the return on your investment." And it has things to crow about; the lab won the first-place investigative-reporting award from the New Hampshire Press Association, for its report on 21 gallons of Fentanyl solution that went missing from the local hospital. 

The Sentinel launched the lab in February 2022 after monthgs of "listening sessions with all sorts of folks in our community: health care providers, patients, nonprofit leaders, social service agencies, and some initial rounds of of fundraising," Rooney said. "We picked health care for this initiative largely because it's one of the issues [for which] rural communities are so well known."

The lab has a free email newsletter on Mondays with more than 1,000 subscribers and an open rate of 45%. Its content is published in the Sentinel's health section on Wednesdays as well. And it has a podcast, "Invisible Illness," with interveiws of "folks who have a diagnosis that's not outwardly visible and kind of shines the light on on their experiences," Rooney said. And the lab goes beyond journalism, to community service; it held a health fair that attracted 300 people.

The National Summit on Journalism in Rural America was a hybrid event, with in-person and online audiences. A Zoom recording of the morning session, at which Rooney and Woronoff spoke, is here. 

It's easy to stereotype voters, especially rural ones

A report from the Pew Research Center smashes political stereotypes and clarifies voting trends, David Byler writes for The Washington Post: "Its validated voter survey, which uses official state records to check whether respondents really voted, dispels five common political misconceptions." Here are Byler's data-bites, boiled down for easy digestion:

Chart by David Byler, Washington Post, from Pew Research data

Republicans aren't mainly rural. Democrats aren't mainly urban. Every electoral map has deep-blue dots — major metro areas — surrounded by bright-red rural areas. As a result, pundits often treat Democratic voters as if they are stuffed into a single Manhattan apartment while Republicans are spread among a grid of farms that span the rest of the nation. . . . Democrats fare best in neighborhoods that are close to the city center; while Republicans thrive in exurbs and small metros. But despite how some maps may look, suburbanites — not small-town farmers or big-city baristas — are the core of both parties.

Religious Democrats and secular Republicans are both common. Democrats typically represent the most secular voters: They consistently win almost 90 percent of self-identified atheists, along with roughly 80 percent of agnostics. Republicans, by contrast, routinely take more than 80 percent of the White evangelical vote. . . . But that doesn't mean one party believes in God and the other doesn't. Most Democrats are Christians, and a solid chunk of Republicans claim no religious affiliation. . . . Republican politicians still represent the interests of the religious right, especially on abortion and LGBTQ rights. . . . Both parties are home to a mix of devout and secular voters.

Democrats aren't young. Both parties are old. It's true that young voters tend to prefer Democrats while their parents and grandparents are more likely to vote GOP. In the 2022, House elections, 68 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 backed a Democrat, and 56 percent of seniors voted for a Republican. But older voters rule both parties. In 2022, 6 in 10 Democrats and 7 in 10 Republicans were 50 or older. . . . Only 1 in 4 American adults are between ages 19 and 34, and turnout among young voters is always lower than other age cohorts.

Both parties rely on White college graduates — not just Democrats. When Donald Trump took over the GOP, many white-collar Republicans defected to the Democratic Party. But the magnitude of that shift has been greatly exaggerated. In 2022, only 52 percent of White college graduates voted for Democrats, and 47 percent favored Republicans. The result: Both parties relied on White college graduates for roughly a third of their votes.

The Hispanic vote is not the GOP's only route to victory. In 2020, Trump made substantial gains with Hispanic voters. Since then, political analysts have spent more time and effort analyzing Hispanic Republicans than almost any other group. . . . Only 1 in 10 voters self-identify as Hispanic. Republicans could very well win in 2024 by building on recent gains with the White working-class and Asian American voters, regaining recently lost college-educated suburbanites, or finally making inroads with Black voters. These groups, which make up the other 90 percent of the electorate, deserve attention, too.

U.S. dams are aging and not made to withstand new climate extremes, increasing the risk of disastrous failures

Flood waters approached the top of the Wrightsville Dam near
Montpelier, Vt. (Montpelier police photo via The Boston Globe)

Often overlooked and mostly old, dams provide drinking water, energy and transportation across the U.S., and as the recent flooding in Vermont showed, many need repair and updates that take weather extremes into account. "Heavy rainfall in the Northeast on June 9-11, 2023, generated widespread flooding," writes Hiba Baroud for The Conversation, a journalism platform for academics. "One major concern was the Wrightsville Dam, built in 1935 on the Winooski River north of Vermont's capital city, Montpelier. The reservoir behind the dam rose to within 1 foot of the dam's maximum storage capacity, prompting warnings that water could overtop the dam and worsen already-dangerous conditions downstream or damage the dam. . . . There are more than 91,000 dams across the U.S., in all 50 states, with diverse designs and purposes. . . . The average dam is 60 years, and more than 8,000 dams are over 90 years old."

Besides age, climate change adds another reason for dam fortification. "Compounding the risk in ways that are not yet fully understood are the intensifying rains brought about by a warming planet. Warmer temperatures mean more water in the air and a roiled atmosphere that brings both periods of drought and the potential for deluge," reports Sabrina Shankman of The Boston Globe. Baroud reports: "Designing new dams and upgrading existing infrastructure will need to be based on updated design procedures that consider future climate projections. . . . While older dams aren't necessarily unsafe, they were constructed following outdated design standards and construction procedures and for different environmental conditions. That influences the likelihood and consequences of their failure during disasters."

The U.S. receives an "infrastructure report card" from the American Society of Civil Engineers every four years. "The most recent report card estimates that 70% of U.S. dams will be more than 50 years old by 2030," Baroud reports. "Overall, the report gave U.S. dams a 'D' grade and estimated that more than 2,300 high-hazard potential dams – those that could cause loss of life or serious property damage if they fail, based on the level of development around them – lacked emergency action plans. . . . Decommissioning or replacing dams can be complicated and cost-prohibitive. Regularly maintaining and upgrading older dams can be a cost-effective way to strengthen them and make them resilient to natural hazards."

While overtopping is the number one cause of dam failure, overall structural integrity is influenced by "how long water flows over a dam and the volume of water. . . its purpose, size and location," Baroud explains. "If a dam is designed for flood protection and is surrounded by homes, businesses or critical infrastructure, a large uncontrolled release of water could be catastrophic."

National Labor Relations Board judge tells Dollar General to stop messing with worker efforts to win union representation

Shellie Parsons rests after sweeping trash in the store
parking lot. (Photo: Sophie Park, The Washington Post)

Six workers at a Dollar General store in Winsted, Conn., tried to form a union, "and failed in what is now an off-kilter win," reports Jessica Kuruthukulangara of Seeking Alpha, an investors' newsletter. "The discount retailer was found to have interfered, coerced and restrained its employees from union organizing . . . National Labor Relations Board Judge Arthur Amchan wrote, 'The unfair labor practices involve individuals at the highest levels of management. . . .These practices were also committed pursuant to a corporate policy as to how to deal with organizing efforts by employees.'"

The story begins with one employee, Shellie Parsons, who witnessed management's aggressive tactics and worried about losing her job. With few options, she sought union protection, reports Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post. She called Local 371 of the United Food and Commercial Workers. "The workers wanted more job security. They wanted a process to ensure that their complaints weren't ignored. They wanted to know that their labor was valued and that they were respected. . . . Most of [the Winsted workers] were making minimum wage or just slightly above it."

Dollar General, which closed its only successfully unionized store in Auxvasse, Mo., responded to the employees' efforts by hiring "five anti-union consultants, each of whom was paid $2,700 a day, according to documents filed with the Labor Department. It dispatched three out-of-state executives to the store who shadowed the employees for the month, working alongside them. Sometimes executives talked baseball, hunting or music with the store employees," Jaffe writes. "Other times, they warned them about the union, which they said would make them pay costly dues and ruin their relationship with their store manager, whom they liked and admired."

In the weeks leading up to the Winsted store's representation election, employee Jake Serafini was fired for cursing, Jaffe reports. "The dismissal shook some of Serafini's co-workers, who were convinced that he was fired because he was pro-union . . . Parsons said that a Dollar General executive had warned [another employee] about the closing of the Auxvasse store and suggested that the same thing could happen in Connecticut. . . . Dollar General, in response to questions from the Post, said that no threats were made to close the Connecticut store."

The union lost the vote, but Parson "believed that the election hadn't been fair, that Dollar General had 'polluted' her colleagues' minds with falsehoods and fear," Jaffe writes and the NLRB judge agreed "that Dollar General had violated labor laws and used 'blatant unfair' practices to discourage unionization. . . Amchan directed Dollar General to cease and desist from these labor practices and reinstate the fired activist employee."

Ruralites have higher rates of disability, especially in South

Data includes civilian non-institutionalized population.
(Map by Katrina Crankshaw, from Census Bureau data; click it to enlarge)

Rural residents have higher rates of disability than their urban counterparts, with the South having the highest regional rate. The reasons could include older populations and limited access to medical care, reports Katrina Crankshaw for the Census Bureau's Health and Disability Statistics Branch. 

Crankshaw overlooks another possible reason. Education levels tend to be lower in rural areas, which makes it easier for injured manual laborers without high-school diplomas to win disability benefits.

Crankshaw reports rural residents "were more likely (14.7%) than their urban counterparts (12.6%) to experience disability. . . . The South had the nation's highest rates of disability (13.8%), followed by the Midwest (13.1%), the Northeast (12.3%), and the West (12.1%) . . . according to the American Community Survey 1-year estimates." The ACS is the bureau's ongoing poll of the U.S. population.

Reporting distinctions can help government and community planners learn what services residents need and where especially when it comes to rural medical care or broadband access. "It is important to understand how regional and urban/rural differences in disability contribute to the unique challenge of addressing health disparities in the United States," Crankshaw adds. "Identifying where people with disabilities are concentrated can help inform where there may be shortages of specialized providers or limited transportation options."

Dan Kessler, interim executive director of the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living, told Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder, that one reason could be health-care accress: "Looking at primary care, where you may see a physician for several issues, for example, your diabetes or some other condition, which, if left untreated, could very well result in someone acquiring a long-term disability." Eaton writes, "Kessler added that the digital divide also impacts access to medical care," making telehealth impossible and online scheduling for appointments or transportation more difficult.

Crankshaw notes, "Many states in the South are part of what is known as the Stroke Belt, defined by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute as a cluster of states (including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) that have a higher incidence of stroke than the rest of the country. . . . . Stroke is one of the nation's primary causes of long-term disability, and half of stroke survivors age 65 years and older experience reduced mobility as a result. The higher stroke incidence is just one factor that may contribute to the southern region's overall higher disability rates."

What constitutes a disability? Crankshaw explains, "ACS considers people to have a disability if they have difficulty with one or more of the following: Seeing, hearing, concentrating or remembering (age 5 and older), walking or climbing stairs (5 and older); dressing or bathing (5 and older); doing errands alone, such as buying groceries or going to the doctor (15 and older).

Ghost papers are increasing, but how to define, count them? Medill's Local News Initiative is working on it; so are we

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

There seems to be little doubt that America has an increasing number of ghost newspapers, but it's hard to say how many – not just because there's no widely accepted definition, but because determining whether they fit any sort of definition is very time-consuming.

The Local News Initiative at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism is working on it, as we learned in the first session of the third National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, held by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues on July 7.

Zachary Metzger, the chief researcher and database manager for the initiative's State of Local News Project, said the project hopes to have something to say on the topic in its next report, which it plans to publish this fall. He gave an example of three ghost papers being operated jointly, but said finding such examples "is difficult to do en masse."

"It tends to be kind of difficult to determine whether or not a paper is a ghost newspaper without looking at its content, without looking at the bylines of authors," Metzger said. "There's several kind of web-scraping techniques that could in theory be used to try to determine the size of newsrooms, to try to determine how many articles are being written by individual writers, and then kind of tracking those writers in terms of how many papers they might be writing for."

He said the project is working with "outside consultants and scholars" to develop some prototypes of those research methids, "but they’re still works in progress."

As moderator of the discussion, I said I was glad to hear about that work, "because I think in rural journalism today, we don't have so much a problem of quantity as we have a problem of quality."

I ventured, and Metzger agreed, that another metric for a ghost newspaper is the number of hours its physical office is open to the public. Several newspaper chains have closed most of their offices, and others are keeping them open only a few hours a week.

On a front door in Logan, Ohio

Without mentioning its name or location, I noted one newspaper in southeast Ohio that still has "Daily" in its name but prints only two or three times a week and is open to the public just nine hours a week: on three days, three hours a day. 

Metzger said "That's probably a result of the declining staff numbers," and perhaps because the staff is down to one person, "and they are maybe responsible for even going around multiple counties. Then there might not be a lot of time for them to be in the office. But absolutely, that can be a strong metric."

He said that if a paper's office is open less than 40 hours a week, "You lose the availability of that newspaper to be able to connect with the public, and that is where a lot of the stories and reporting can come from. And when there's only one reporter on staff, there's no administrative staff. There's no office staff to be able to handle those kinds of questions and queries and engage with the public. then that paper does lose that significant resource of of public engagement."

Some sort of survey about newspaper office hours seems to be in order. One represented at the Summit, The Woodford Sun in Versailles, Ky., is open 26 hours a week, mostly seven hours on the main production days and publication day, and closed on the day the staff has to send the pages to the printer at 11 a.m. The weekly is locally owned.

In Mountain City, Tenn.

In the far northeast corner of Tennessee last month, I found that the office of The Tomahawk in Mountain City is open 23 hours a week, with a similar schedule to The Woodford Sun's. As a former weekly newspaper editor and manager, I consider that close to the minimum necessary office schedule. The weekly is owned by Six Rivers Media, a small regional chain.

Metzger said "A ghost newspaper can be thought of as a newspaper with a severely reduced staff. It still exists. There's a masthead for it. You can find it in newsstands or download e-editions online, but because the staff has been so reduced, or because it's so minimal, most of the content that is going to be within that paper is either going to be coming from a single reporter who's covering a wide area. It's going to be reprints from wire services, reprints from adjacent newspapers. almost exclusively opinion articles or some combination of those and it will lack the resources for sustained critical local reporting."

Three newspapers that share a nameplate in central Georgia.

Metzger said ghost newspapers are increasing in rural areas, and briefly presented his 2020 case study of the TimesJournalPost in central Georgia, owned by the Dublin Courier Herald and consolidating papers in three counties with a total of about 30,000 people: The Cochran Journal, The Twiggs Times New Era and The Wilkinson County Post. "These are technically independent mastheads, but they sort of exist under the umbrella of the Times Journal Post, and the Times Journal Post is essentially all three of those. They don't have individual sections within the paper," and the three counties "are largely covered by one person, one writer, who also seems to be the editor."

However, this isn't so much a ghost paper as one of the increasing consolidations of titles across county lines, which have long been the most basic definition of a rural newspaper's market (and is reflected in the lower postal rates for mailing a paper inside the home county).

Metzer said a ghost newspaper in a rural area like this one "tends to focus on crime news, probably because police logs are relatively accessible and relatively easy" to turn into headlines and stories. Another "red flag," he said, is "Special to" bylines, which once indicated work by a frreelancer or correspondent but increasingly indicate that the story is actually a press release.

"The term ghost, in a sense, comes from the fact that many of these newspapers used to be much more robust, but then reduced their staff size, and so they have become a ghost essentially of their former selves," Metzger said.

Despite extreme heat, outdoor laborers have few exposure protections, first days on the job can be the most dangerous

The Washington Post graph, from OSHA data

In a world that's getting hotter, laws don't protect most workers who are subject to extreme heat, and some are not even guaranteed water breaks, no matter the temperature, report Jacob Bogage and Eli Tan of The Washington Post. "Recent weeks have seen Earth's highest average temperatures on record, according to climate studies, yet most U.S. workers have few legal protections related to extreme heat conditions. The federal government is in the midst of a years-long process to draft heat safety rules, and only six states have their own regulations that guarantee laborers access to water, rest and shade — the three elements that medical professionals say can protect workers from heat illness." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website explains that heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke, happen "when the body is not able to properly cool itself. While the body normally cools itself by sweating, during extreme heat, this might not be enough. In these cases, a person's body temperature rises faster than it can cool itself down. This can cause damage to the brain and other vital organs."

Heat exposure can lead to poor decision-making and indirectly cause accidents. "Between 2017 and 2022, the deaths of 121 workers on the job were officially attributed directly to heat, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which says that number is almost surely an undercount because heat-related deaths are often blamed on other workplace accidents or underlying health conditions." Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the United Farm Workers, told the Post: "You are already reacting more slowly, and you are making different choices than you would. A lot of people become irritable at this point, they’re not going to be taking the advice of the people around them." "

Some states have removed or rejected heat protections. "In Texas, lawmakers nullified heat safety ordinances in Dallas and Austin as part of a sweeping statute that stripped local governments' rights to regulate workplace issues. . . . . The Texas legislature found those and other local workplace ordinances too burdensome on employers. . . . Texas is the only state that doesn't guarantee workers' compensation, where workers are paid if they get injured or sick on the job." Bogage and Tan write. "Legislators in Florida, where 11 workers died of heat-induced causes since 2017, according to OSHA data, rejected legislation that required employers to implement outdoor heat exposure safety training programs, provide cool drinking water, shade and rest breaks in hot conditions."

"The most dangerous workplaces during heat waves are outdoor sites," the Post reports. "According to OSHA data, the three most fatal heat-related jobs are construction, agricultural work and landscaping, and among these jobs, OSHA says 50 to 70 percent of heat fatalities occur within a worker's first few days. . . . In Inman, Neb., in July 2019, a worker collapsed and died in the extreme heat after digging holes next to telephone poles for 11 hours on his first shift, the agency found. 'The body needs to build a tolerance to the heat gradually over time,' according to OSHA's website, a process called 'acclimatization.'. . . The agency, along with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, says acclimatization programs should last five days, where workers start with 20 percent of their normal workload and gradually increase."

Telecom companies left a network of lead-clad cables, endangering communities; cable workers first to be exposed

Graphic by Mark Nowlin, Seattle Times, from Public Health of Seattle-King County, CDC, NIH

"Get the lead out" is a solid health warning. "Tens of thousands of workers at American Telephone & Telegraph and its successor companies were exposed to lead on the job over many years. Current and former workers say they often felt left in the dark about their exposure and how to stay safe," report Shalini Ramachandran, Coulter Jones, Susan Pulliam and Thomas Gryta of The Wall Street Journal. "Some of the workers have neurological disorders, kidney ailments, gastrointestinal issues and cardiovascular problems, illnesses that can be linked to lead exposure. There's no way to determine what triggered specific ailments. Doctors say no amount of lead is safe."

Lead's presence in cables, glass or industrial supplies harms more than the handler. "The lead, which those workers handled for decades, is a potential health risk for communities across the U.S. The cables sheathed in the toxic metal are the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation that has detailed how AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants left behind a sprawling network of cables, many of which are leaching lead into the environment. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead exposure," the Journal reports. "AT&T dismissed 'anecdotal, non-evidence-based linkages to individuals' health symptoms,' saying those symptoms' could be associated with a vast number of potential causes.' Verizon said it has 'a robust safety and health program to provide training, materials and resources and that workers can get lead testing at any time at no cost."

Tommy Steed, who is now 74 years old, provided the Journal with an object example. He "removed lead underground cables. . . said he often vomited after eating breakfast. He said he never got his blood test results from Nynex, now part of Verizon, despite repeated requests. The state health department later provided them, showing high levels of lead: 'Steed's blood-lead level was 43 micrograms per deciliter in May 1988 and 39 micrograms two months later, according to New York health department records. The average level for the U.S. population at the time was 2.8 micrograms per deciliter, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.'. . . Nynex' didn't try to get me any remedial help,' said Steed, now chairman of the Association of BellTel Retirees, which advocates for former workers."

"A study conducted in the 1970s at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital of 90 Bell System cable splicers showed 'a high lead content in their blood, with 10 'in danger of suffering medical and/or physical deterioration if they continue on their jobs,' according to letters among union officials. A small study last year of lead in Verizon workers' bones showed that exposures continued," the Journal reports. "AT&T and Verizon declined to comment on the studies."

States having issues with federal program to plug orphan oil and gas wells: not enough pluggers, new rules from Interior

Crude oil, water, chemicals and probably methane leak from an orphaned well’s

borehole in West Texas. (Photo by Shelby Webb, Energy & Environment News)

The federal government has $4.7 billion to plug orphaned oil and gas wells, "but the new federal money is creating logistical and regulatory challenges . . . raising many questions about whether the money will live up to its promise," Shelby Webb reports for Energy & Environment News.

"Some officials say they are having a hard time finding enough crews to plug the wells under the timelines dictated by the federal funds, and available workers are charging higher prices than originally anticipated," Webb reports. "Many orphaned wells also remain undiscovered, putting pressure on states to develop new methods for finding and plugging them."

The latest hiccup is the Interior Department's new rules for the grant money, which it announced last week. They "will require states to track methane emissions, develop screening processes to check for groundwater pollution and prioritize plugging wells near historically underserved communities," Webb reports. "However, Lori Wrotenbery, executive director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, said in an email that Interior cannot require states to track methane or groundwater pollution and can instead only tell states they are 'expected' or 'encouraged' to do so. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission represents all but one of the 26 states that have been deemed eligible to receive the federal orphaned well plugging funds."

The Interior Department told Webb that while methane and water-pollution measurements were encouraged in its initial grants, they are now “requirements.”

Webb writes, "There may be as many as 800,000 orphaned wells across the country, according to some estimates. In 2021, states reported 126,806 to the Department of Interior, although many experts say that number vastly understates the problem. Along with being eyesores, the wells may be polluting groundwater and are estimated to be the 10th largest source of methane emissions in the U.S., according to a study by McGill University in Canada."

Vermont town’s lessons from 2011 flood reflected in less damage last week; 'tree huggers' became 'culvert huggers'

The town of Bethel, Vermont, is in the center of the watershed of the White River, which empties into the Connecticut River at White River Junction, Vt., and West Lebanon, N.H. (Google map, adapted by The Rural Blog; to enlarge, click on it.)

Bethel, Vermont, has seen more than its share of heavy rainfall, and its hard-won lessons of the past helped it weather last week's flooding with less damage, reports Frances Mize of the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt.

"The town has learned the hard way how to buckle down during a big storm," Mize writes. "In August 2011, Bethel incurred over $5 million in damage to public infrastructure during Tropical Storm Irene, the most of any town in the state, according to data from the state. . . . Monday, seven inches of rain fell on Bethel, adding to an already swollen White River. . . . While road damage required rescues and paperwork, other infrastructure in town made it soundly through the storm. The Bethel septic system was totally submerged on Monday night. But due to upgrades made to the system after it failed during Irene, it was able to come back online."

The region has made precipitation preparedness a priority. "As the waters recede, similar stories of bridges and roads that held out are being told across the Upper Valley" of the Connecticut River, Mize writes. "In Irene, around 1,000 culverts failed across Vermont, according to the state. . . . The state now requires culverts, when they fail or when they are built afresh, to be constructed at bank-full width, which is the height of water right before it jumps its banks." Mary Russ, executive director of the White River Partnership, told Mize: “Those newer structures are passing these flows. The roads aren’t washing away, the houses next door aren’t washing away, cemeteries aren’t washing away. Bad things happen when those structures blow. . . . Before Irene, we were tree huggers. Now we’re culvert huggers.”

"Vermont is seeing 300% more precipitation than what would normally fall this time of year, Russ said. But over the past eight years, Vermont has also weathered historic drought," Mize reports. "Around Route 14, in parts of Royalton, Bethel and Randolph, the First and Second Branch valleys of the White River — where agricultural fields and forested land follow the waterway — flooded over. . . . Rudi Ruddell, a watershed scientist with the White River Partnership, said it sounds menacing, but it means that floodplains are working. . . . Russ said recognizing its vulnerable position in the watershed, Bethel has been proactive in leveraging open space as flood mitigation." She told Mize: “Talking to colleagues and community members in the upper reaches of the watershed, they said it worked amazingly well in this flood. And we’re not looking at another million-dollar bond to protect the roads.”

2 Calif. papers, a daily and a weekly, grow coverage areas

At least two California newspapers, a daily in the north and a weekly in the south, have stared the realities of the local-news business in the face and decided to expand, not retreat.

Rick Green

When The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa heard that the Napa Valley Register "was dramatically slashing both its staff and number of days it publishes and how its three weekly editions would now be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, we knew readers’ lives were being severely disrupted," Editor Rick Green wrote in a message to Napa County readers getting a free copy of the PD, which now has staff members assigned to Napa. "At a time when countless media companies and newspapers around the country are retreating — either eliminating days of publication or reducing newsroom staffs — our organization is doing something radically different. We’re expanding significantly into a new market to serve readers like you: Residents, taxpayers, voters and families in Napa County who depend on a consistent news source to help them lead better lives."

The Ojai Valley News, which had to find a new printer when the Santa Barbara News-Press went digital-only and shut down its press, responded aggressively. Publisher Laura Rearwin Ward raised circulation prices to cover the increased costs of printing and transportation, and expanded her coverage into other parts of her county, home of the Gannett-owned Ventura County Star.

Laura R. Ward

"In order to survive this increase and maintain the quality of the image reproduction and readability, we have made the difficult decision to raise advertising rates by 3% and the print-paper price to $2 each," Ward told her readers. "For subscribers who find the rate a financial hardship, we still offer a no-questions-asked 'need discount' option. And for those readers who are able to contribute extra to support this program, we thank you for checking the box on your renewal card, 'Support of Local Journalism,' or by contributing directly at www.ojaivalleynews.com. Your support helps us to continue offering that discount for anyone who needs one and fill in with print-cost shortfall and extra reporting staff." Then Ward delivered "The good news," including expansion: "To shore up gaps in professional news reporting in Ventura and Oxnard, we have begun to also do business as the Ventura County Sun," with a new website.

Ward wrote on the member Hotline of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors that the increases are unlikely to cover her extra weekly cost of $750 "for a local paper printing 2,400 copies a week," but she hopes to make up the difference with donations. She said the letter got her "$1,100 in donations and a promise for help from a big donor, as well as lots of personal concern from subscribers."

Ward wrote that the "need discount" started when she took over the paper six years ago and found huge "a number" of subscribers in the mountain retirement town were getting a senior discount. "It was killing us. Rather than eliminate the discount, we 'expanded' the discount to include anyone who 'needs' a discount. We basically changed a rewards program into a charity-based program. No questions asked, just check the box that you need financial assistance." The rate isn't offered online. "We explain to callers that while the senior discount is no more, we have expanded it to include anyone who needs financial assistance. Amazingly it seems only those who need it take it. . . . It has been a success, it amounts to a small percentage of our readers and it creates a safety to keep readers that it breaks your heart to raise rates for, as well as keeping subscription numbers stronger. It was a risk worth taking for us."

News outlets can apply through Sept. 18 to host a journalist from Report for America, which seeks rural applicants

Report for America seeks Partner Newsrooms from GroundTruth on Vimeo.

Report for America, the national service program that places emerging and experienced journalists into local newsrooms, has opened the portal for news organizations to apply to host an RFA "corps member" for up to three years, starting next summer. The deadline is Sept. 18.

Sofi Zeman, a recent University of Missouri
graduate, is a new RFA corps member at
the weekly Uvalde Leader-News in Texas.

This week, 60 new RFA corps members began their onboarding and orientation in new positions in newsrooms in every corner of the country. More than 600 reporters have been placed in more than 300 newsrooms since the GroundTruth Project launched the program in 2017. The program is making a special effort to place corps members in rural newsrooms.

Charles Sennott, GroundTruth's founder and editor-in-chief, told his mailing list this week, "If you live in a big city or a small town where there are under-covered issues and overlooked communities and if you see a need for stronger local reporting on important issues like the environment, criminal justice, and health, please encourage your local news organization to reach out to us."

Earl Johnson, RFA's vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement, said in Sennott's email, “We understand the challenges today’s newsrooms face, not only finding talented journalists but also providing the mentorship and support they might seek. By partnering with Report for America, local newsrooms are better positioned to cover important issues, diversify their newsrooms, and grow sustainable, local support within their communities.”

RFA is also seeking mentors for its corps members, Sennott wrote: "The mentors are a diverse group in many ways, but they are bound together by a belief in our mission and are working hard to support and build the future of local journalism. So if you know a journalist who might have the time to help the next generation, or if you fit that bill yourself, please reach out."

Newsrooms can go here to learn more about the program and to access the application.

Peer-reviewed study by clean-energy group says if only 0.2% of natural gas leaks, it's as bad as coal for the climate

A New York Times video with an infrared filter, at right,
captured natural gas leaking from a plant in Midkiff, Texas.

"Natural gas, long seen as a cleaner alternative to coal and an important tool in the fight to slow global warming, can be just as harmful to the climate, a new study has concluded, unless companies can all but eliminate the leaks that plague its use," reports Hiroko Tabuchi of The New York Times.

The study found that if only 0.2 percent of gas leaks into the atmosphere, it is "as big a driver of climate change as coal," Tabuchi reports. "That’s a tiny margin of error for a gas that is notorious for leaking from drill sites, processing plants and the pipes that transport it." Her story does not give any estimates of what the actual leak volume might be, or any comments from the gas industry.

The study was led by Deborah Gordon, the lead researcher and an environmental policy expert at Brown University and at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit that promoptes clean energy. It also involved researchers from NASA, Harvard University and Duke University, and is scheduled for publication next week in the journal Environmental Research Letters. It "adds to a substantial body of research that has poked holes in the idea that natural gas is a suitable transitional fuel to a future powered entirely by renewables, like solar and wind," Tabuchi writes.

Power plants' shift from coal to gas "has helped reduce carbon emissions from power plants by nearly 40 percent since 2005," Tabuchi notes. "But natural gas is made up mostly of methane, which is a far more potent planet-warming gas, in the short term, than carbon dioxide when it escapes unburned into the atmosphere. And there’s mounting evidence that methane is doing just that: leaking from gas systems in far larger quantities than previously thought. Sensors and infrared cameras are helping to visualize substantial leaks of methane from oil and gas infrastructure, and increasingly powerful satellites are detecting “super-emitting” episodes from space."

Farm-spread sludge from wastewater plants and factories is a main source of 'forever chemicals' in South Carolina water

Sludge-spreading sites and wells with "forever chemicals" are marked on this satellite image, part of the multimedia package with The State newspaper's story. The image shows part of Darlington County, South Carolina.

The spreading of wastewater sludge on farms is a main suspected source of toxic "forever chemicals" found in streams across South Carolina, says the state government that allowed tens of thousands of acres to be unknowingly contaminated, Sammy Fretwell reports for The State newspaper in Columbia.

“It’s sad. We didn’t know what we were doing to the ground,’’ farmer Robbie O’Neal said of the sludge spreading program his family once relied on. “We were told it was supposed to be good, supposed to be nothing wrong with it. It wasn’t supposed to hurt anything. . . . It has leached into our drinking water and poisoned us.’

Fretwell reports, "More than 3,500 farm fields have been approved to receive sludge. Sewage plants, factories and other types of industrial facilities were approved to spread sludge and wastewater. Now, increasing evidence shows that some sludge contains chemicals with a toxic punch called per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The class of toxic compounds has only in recent years become widely known to the public. Commonly called forever chemicals, the material is of such concern that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a strict drinking water limit of 4 parts per trillion on some types of the chemicals. Forever chemicals got their name because they do not break down easily in the environment, meaning they can pollute the earth, rivers and groundwater for decades."

For decades, a now-closed textile factory persuaded farmers to use the sludge as fertilizer. In 2019, the government found those chemicals in the drinking water of those farmers and their neighbors, and "All of them lived and worked in areas where farmers had used sludge from the Galey and Lord textile plant. And many of the wells they drank from were polluted with the same chemicals being found in sludge at the factory several miles away. . . . The chemicals are showing up in almost every river tested in the Palmetto State, often at levels above the proposed federal drinking water standard."

Founder of huge indoor-agriculture startup replaced as CEO

Jonathan Webb, then CEO of AppHarvest, at its Morehead facility in 2022 (Photo: Silas Walker, Lexington Herald-Leader)

The indoor-agriculture startup AppHarvest, with four farms along the edge of the Appalachian Plateau in Kentucky, will no longer be run by the Kentucky native who foudned it in 2018. Jonathan Webb will become chief strategy officer and remain a company director.

"Tony Martin, a veteran of the controlled-environment agriculture industry, will be the new CEO. Martin first joined the company’s board in October and has been the chief operating officer since January," reports Rick Childress of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"The CEO change comes as the company faces a foreclosure complaint on its farm in Richmond and a dispute over the lease of its Berea farm. Last fall, AppHarvest — which grows large quantities of fruits and vegetables in massive, climate-controlled greenhouses and employs hundreds of people — said in public filings that it was running low on cash and disclosed “substantial doubt” about its future. The company also has farms in Morehead and Somerset."

Grain-related entrapments most numerous in over a decade, and other accidents have increased, Purdue summary says

Grain bins can be death traps. (Purdue University photo)

Farms are full of confined or partially confined spaces that put farmworkers at risk, and 2022 was a hazardous year with "roughly a 40 percent increase in the number of reported cases involving agricultural confined spaces," according to the 2022 "Summary of U.S. Agricultural Confined Space-Related Injuries and Fatalities" from Purdue University. "The annual, widely used summary documents the previous year's frequency and causes of confined space and grain entrapment incidents in the agricultural industry and provides a historical analysis of agricultural confined space hazards," a university press release says.

"In 2022, the summary reported no fewer than 83 cases – 24 fatal and 59 nonfatal cases – involving agricultural confined spaces. This represents a 40.7% increase over the 59 cases in 2021. The authors explain that there are limitations in data collection as not every case may be reported. As a result, these numbers are approximate," the university reports. "In addition, of the total number of confinement cases, 42 grain-related entrapments represented a 44.8% increase over 2021. This was the highest number of reported grain entrapments in over a decade. According to the authors, grain entrapments are the most common type of agricultural confined space incident."

Edward Sheldon, one of the summary's authors, said they pointed out "the role of out-of-condition grain in grain entrapments. Many entrapments result from someone entering a bin or structure to break loose, clumped, spoiled grain. Keep the grain in good condition to eliminate the need to enter the bin. We strongly encourage farmers and agribusiness employers to recognize the hazards presented by confined spaces such as grain bins, silos and manure storage facilities, and use best management practices and effective training programs to keep their families and employees safe."

"Iowa reported the most agricultural confinement cases, at 24, and grain entrapment cases at nine. One female case was documented, which occurred inside a cotton module builder," Purdue reports. "Of 41 non-grain-related cases, incidents involved livestock waste handling facilities, entanglements inside confined spaces, falls from confined space structures and grain dust explosions or fires. . . . Sheldon urges farmers and agribusiness employers to utilize the educational resources outlined in the summary pointing them to other programs like Gearing Up for Safety. . . . This program offers a youth-oriented curriculum, also related to the hazards associated with agricultural confined spaces."

Flora and fauna: Golden milk; pickin' up pawpaws; the fearsome grizzly returns; meet a big island's only elk . . .

Guernseys graze in East Earl, Pa. (Photo by Art Petrosemolo)

Not your average glass of milk. This one is golden. "Decades ago, the Guernsey breed was the gold standard of the dairy world thanks to its uniquely colored milk," Art Petrosemolo reports for Lancaster Farming. "As the focus shifted toward production . . . Guernsey cattle took a backseat. But several breeders are optimistic the Guernsey can rise again, banking on the benefits of its distinctive milk. . . . People love the rich taste and the nutritional components that include beta carotene."

The grizzly bear has returned to the contiguous U.S., stirring awe and fear in "one of America's unlikeliest comeback stories," reports Gloria Dickie for High Country News. "The bears are among the slowest-reproducing mammals in North America; they require vast tracts of habitat (an adult male grizzly can have a home range of 600 square miles); and they kill people. Bringing back the grizzly required humans to overcome their fear of predators and champion the return of a known man-eater. . . . And as grizzlies expand into places they haven't inhabited in more than a century, they are crossing not only geographical and political boundaries but thresholds of tolerance."

Pawpaws look odd, but they are delicious.
(Photo by Wendell Smith, Flickr/Creative Commons)

To nab a sweet fruit with an equally sweet theme song, go "Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch" and plop some pawpaws in your pockets. (They're not at stores; they don't keep well.) "Some folks swear pawpaws taste like bananas; the highly nutritious, creamy fruits, rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, can be eaten raw or used in any recipe calling for bananas," Jessica Damiano reports for The Associated Press. "Pawpaws are easy to grow and exotically delicious."

What matters to bees? Flowers. But bee survival is much more complicated than making sure blossoms are plentiful. "Some of the most important sources of the global food supply — pollinators — are in decline, but work is underway in Wisconsin that could reverse that trend," reports Gaby Vinick of Wisconsin Public Radio. Conservation biologists and researchers are using state funds "toward increasing pollinator habitat at seven state parks, as part of the 'Pollinator in the Parks' program. . . . [At] Governor Dodge State Park, there was a documented sighting of the rusty patched bumblebee, a federally endangered listed species."

Photo by Ralph Downes via The Seattle Times

This elk decided to go for a swim, and he just kept swimming until he landed on 169-square-mile Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. "Meet Bruiser, the only elk on the island, with no other bulls or predators to deal with," reports Geoff Ziezulewicz for The Seattle Times. "He also was alone, the only elk on Whidbey. Life is choices. And today, ensconced in the island's bounty, Bruiser just might be America's loneliest elk. Does he even care?"

Designer bags, clothes, sunglasses and now, seeds. "In the future, the food you eat could be grown from seeds developed with gene editing tools," reports Mike Moen of Public News Service. "Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, thinks the products will be on the scene soon, adding they could bring stronger yields for farmers, along with healthier crops to sell. . . . Watne argued there should also be strong 'truth-in-labeling' policies so consumers know exactly what they are getting. He added a robust approach could help meet future demand for food."

Youngmeyer Field Station in the Flint Hills of Kansas offers rural magnificence as an off-the-grid research facility

The roof has a clean line with a sculpted edge. (Photos by Brad Feinknopf, DeZeen)

Off the grid and set into the land of the Flint Hills of southeast Kansas, the Youngmeyer Field Station of Wichita State University stands out with its curved stone and stretching windows gracing a bluff. The station, built by Kansas studio Hutton, was designed "to integrate with the landscape and to withstand heavy winds and other natural forces, reports Jenna McKnight for DeZeen. "The building sits within the 4,700-acre Youngmeyer Ranch, an active cattle ranch and research site." Hutton explained the design: "Like the dugouts of the Midwestern frontier days, the field station is partially embedded in the earth to protect the facility from northern winds and to further the contextual camouflage."

The station houses "a laboratory, meeting space, and a garage, along with living quarters to accommodate up to six researchers. . . . The facility is not tied to public utilities. Rooftop solar panels generate electricity, and water is collected on-site." McKnight writes. "The area's plants, animals, soils and waterways are of interest to researchers, particularly given the ranch's location within Flint Hills, a region known for its important tall-grass prairie ecosystem. Once vast, this type of ecosystem has declined since the 1800s due to farming."

The building's design offers a peculiar integration into the surrounding land, as if the structure had come up from the ground. "Façades consist of four varieties of local limestone, arranged in bands that emulate the layers of sediment in the surrounding hills. One of the stone varieties, Prairie Shell, contains fossilized shells that hint at the story of the prehistoric era," McKnight writes. "To maintain a discrete profile, the team created a 'clean roof line' with a sculpted edge. . . . For added protection from both wind and wildfire, the facility is made of concrete and clad in durable and noncombustible exterior materials such as limestone and glass."

The building's meticulously designed interior brings forth a layer of delight. Station team members told McKnight, "Visitors can take a scavenger hunt around the building for fossils preserved and on display in the walls, including a perfect nautilus right by the front door." McKnight adds: "One finds earthy finishes such as wood and stone and a color palette evoking natural elements such as sediment, heads of grain and the sky. . . . The communal room, which looks to the south and east, is afforded sweeping views of the landscape through large stretches of glass. . . . The team noted that the closest neighboring property is a few miles down the road."

New to the trade, Jeremy Gulban has more former Gannett papers than anyone; he says success is up to communities

By Al Cross

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

The owner of dozens of "ghost newspapers" bought from Gannett Co. says he is trying to revive them by returning editorial decision-making to local people while still taking advantage of the economies of scale that have led to consolidation of newspaper ownership. But he says his new chain's fate is not in its own hands.

"The success or failure of these rural newspapers is on the local people," CherryRoad Media CEO Jeremy Gulban said Friday at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, sponsored by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog. His remark fit the Summit's research question: "How do rural communities sustain local journalism that supports democracy?"

One example of a community sustaining rural journalism was the first paper Gulban started, the Rainy Lake Gazette in International Falls, where the paper had closed, and he reached out to the local Chamber of Commerce because he had recently bought his first paper in Grand Marais, also in northern Minnesota. "They got a whole bunch of different stakeholders in town, and we all met, and it was really kind of an amazing meeting for me, because I had never seen that kind of enthusiasm, that kind of spirit, to solve a problem," Gulban said. Three weeks later, they had a paper. "People really embraced it," he said. "We quickly got to more subscribers than, you know, the old paper had."

CherryRoad Media map, adapted by The Rural Blog

That brought the information-technology entrepreneur to the attention of the nation's biggest newspaper company, which is trying to unload small papers that add little, if anything, to its bottom line. "Gannett was looking for an organization that was strong enough technically to be able to do these migrations that would have to happen, and probably blissfully ignorant enough to take on this challenge of selling their worst papers, basically. So we took the leap." Now his company, less than three years old, has 77 papers in 17 states, more than 50 of them former Gannett papers, and many of them "ghost newspapers," he said.

Making the papers substantial and sustainable began with returning control to local people. "When we took over, the editors would say, ‘We send in a few articles, and we don't see the paper until it winds up coming to the office after it's printed.’ . . . I think the biggest thing that that happened is they eliminated all the local publishers, so there is no one ... you can call to talk about the paper. There's literally no one. Everything flows up in these vertical silos, which leads to a lack of integration, a lack of working together. And, as you all know, you can't have your salespeople off doing one thing and editorial people doing another. There's got to be that collaboration which, you know, really doesn't exist. . . . If people want to place an ad. They'll call an 800 number, and they'll go online and do it. And we all know in small towns that won't happen."

The downward spiral of news, ads and circulation has left ghost papers with two kinds of subscribers and regular single-copy buyers, Gulban said: "People who just like the ritual of getting the paper and really don't care what's in it ... and people who hold a position in town where they feel like they need to get the paper. . . . People who were truly looking for news had just given up and kind of moved on."

That caused most retail advertising to vanish, and "dependence on legal [ads] and obituaries," Gulban said. "When we looked at at these financials, the revenue from obits, legal and classified, was nearly double the display advertising in a lot of cases, you know, which is totally upside down. . . . So really, what you have is you got a ghost newspaper, right? It really has no relevance in the community. And you know that's a vicious cycle, right? The the less relevant it is. So. This is kind of the cycle that we found most of these papers to be in."

In addition to returning editorial control, "We tried to take out all of the regional or national content that was being put in there primarily as filler," Gulban said. "We still have some national content in some of the more-than-once-a-week frequencies. But anything weekly really has nothing but local content in it. We invested more in editorial positions. . . . We've actually been able to find someone in every one of those markets which has not been easy."

Jeremy Gulban

On the business side, "We've really tried to make sure we have a local ad rep in every market, with some success," he said. "That's not an easy position to hire for, particularly if you've got a tough product that you're trying to sell into. So we've had a hard time getting people. . . . Our biggest source of talent, believe it or not, is just people who used to work at the paper, and see that it's improved and want to come back." As staffs are rebuilt, Gulban said, "some people are going to step up and be leaders in this. And some people aren't. And so there's a direct correlation between the leadership ability of the local usually editor, sometimes the salesperson."

But local has its limits. Local ad and page designers are "a luxury that we can't afford," Gulban said. "And we've built our own circulation platform. That's entirely web-based so that we can have people in different locations serve circulation needs across markets." All printing is outsourced, but he said the company might build a plant because so many are closing: "We do believe that a printed product has to be part of the long-term solution" to the problems of local papers.

One way to define a ghost newspaper is that it has no local office open to the public, or is open only a few hours a week: "That just leads to no community goodwill efforts, no sponsoring events, no joining the Rotary Club, none of that," Gulban said. "That's so essential in a small-town newspaper." But not so essential that he has offices in some small markets. In Stephenville, Texas, rent was too high, so "We're trying to pioneer like a shared office, you know, with a Chamber of Commerce, maybe even a local restaurant, you know, we're open for lunch. Three days a week we go in there, the editor's there, the circulation person's there, you can go meet with them. We're trying to be as creative as possible just to keep that physical real estate cost down." The Google listing for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune says it's "temporarily closed."

Sites of two of the Texas papers discussed (Google map)

Just east of Stephenville on US 67 south of Fort Worth, the Glen Rose Reporter serves a town of 900 people with 320 print subscribers, "which was under 200 when we took over, and 108 digital subscribers, which was zero because there was no paywall," Gulban said. "This paper was absolutely horrible. It had literally nothing in it. When we took over, two really dedicated freelancers stepped up and said, 'We will make this paper be successful, and so they produce all the content between the two of them. They take it upon themselves to go around town, try to get people to advertise, try to drive additional subscribers. . . . This is so much better of a paper than it was a year ago, and the results show. And while those numbers are small, in percentage-increase terms, they're really huge. . . . Truthfully, if we didn't take this paper over, it wouldn't be there anymore, because the markets, too small for anybody to really be interested in doing anything here."

Gulban's other example was the Hamburg Reporter, in Iowa's southeast corner. Fremont County "had a catastrophic flood in 2019 and basically half the town's population left, so the population is now 890. We have 132 print subscribers and two digital, but we just put the paywall up two weeks ago," Gulban said. But its ad revenue averages $9,200 a month, and "this is the best revenue per population of anything in our whole organization." The paper's mothership is the Nebraska City News-Press, across the Missouri River; the one person "who was basically doing everything" died last month, "so we have to figure out how to handle that. But the model here still holds. . . . We have one person who is about town, knows everybody, is able to do a lot of different things," Gulban said. Our vision, which is a little bit out there, is: If you want to advertise in Hamburg, Iowa, we're the place you should be doing it through, not through Facebook, not through any other technical solution. Because we know Hamburg, Iowa. . . . We want to leverage our local staffs and their credibility to drive revenue in this new digital world."

And America's newest newspaper-chain owner had one broad thing to say about consolidation of newspaper ownership: "I believe strongly in distributed ownership of the news, because I don't think the country is founded on the idea that three or four groups or people would control all the information. The vision was thousands of individual people controlling the flow of information."

Gulban was the concluding speaker at the Summit's morning session. The video is here.

This story has been edited to give the correct genesis of Gulban's paper in International Falls.