Study after study has shown that in order for a region to have a strong economy, it needs a newspaper. You don’t always have to agree with what is printed, but we do need to support them. I’m a personal subscriber to the Caledonian-Record and two other regional publications and encourage you to do the same. Thank you to Jay Craven for this extremely important column in the Caledonian-Record today, which is reprinted in its entirety below.
The Arts & Other Digressions
BY JAY CRAVEN
Newspapers Are Vital To Community Health
I don’t always agree with any newspaper I read. But that doesn’t matter. We need to keep our newspapers going – and strong. They connect us to each other.
Newspapers provide connective tissue for our communities.
We know who we are and where we are when we have a newspaper that reports on the day-to-day occurrences where we live and work. In small towns, we get mentioned in the paper and so do our kids and neighbors. School sports get reported and letters to the editor take the pulse of how people are feeling about what’s going on locally or in the larger world.
Historians, years from now, can go to newspaper archives to better understand the past and how it relates to their own time. They can gather details on public figures and events which figure prominently into the region’s history. Someone who’s curious could go, today, to the St. Johnsbury Atheneum, and read the real-time reporting of the devastating Vermont flood of 1927 and how it affected local towns.
You could get a report on Hurricane Irene, from late August 2011, or the 1984 fire set by a former St. Johnsbury legislator that tore buildings apart on Eastern Avenue and resulted in a murder, to keep an accomplice from spilling the beans. You could conduct research into the goings on of a notorious local sheriff who, sometime around the 1940’s or early 50’s, reportedly ruled with an iron fist. I believe his name was Fred Flynn.
Of course, local historical societies are also important. The St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Center comes to mind, but nothing else is out there every day the way a newspaper is.
Shortly after I moved to the Northeast Kingdom, during the mid-1970’s, I started writing occasional feature stories for The Caledonian Record and Times Argus. I visited Ben Thresher in West Barnet and wrote about his 100-year-old water-powered mill and woodworking shop where he fixed farm implements and made barrels by hand.
Twenty-five years later, my son, Jasper, got the opportunity of a lifetime, when the Caledonian gave him a bi-weekly column to report on what it was like being a 13-year-old navigating the schools, streams and slopes of the Northeast Kingdom. It launched his career in journalism, allowing him to continue a family tradition that was started by his great-great grandfather, Wilbur Keith, who worked as city editor at the Dallas Morning News.
Even the ads are important, to let us know what’s at the movies or on stage – and where we might find a yard sale, car dealership, supermarket specials or a weekend auction. Ads create a record of local commerce. When everybody reads the paper, local businesses know that their ads will be seen. It supports the paper and stimulates businesses that form an essential backbone of the community.
I’ve focused on the Caledonian Record because it’s the paper I read most regularly. But the Barton Chronicle is an outstanding independent paper with extensive coverage of local news and a fabulous weekly calendar to keep track of everything that’s percolating in the community. The Chronicle was founded by Chris and Ellen Braithwaite in 1974 – the same year I landed here. Their founding silent partner, Edward Cowan, invested the $500 that got them going. The paper started with 260 initial subscribers and grew its base to 8,500 by 1998. The paper was sold to a group of employees in 2015.
The Weekly News in Lyndonville and the Hardwick Gazette were also vital sources of local news. The Weekly News operated from 1973 to 1991 – I used to enjoy publisher Gerry Stork’s regular rounds for ad sales back during my years
running Catamount Arts. The Gazette continues to publish an online edition but pressures during the Covid pandemic caused it to stop publishing a print edition. Still, it lets people know what’s going on, locally.
New Hampshire also boasts good weekly papers, including the Colebrook Chronicle, led by Charlie, Donna and Thomas Jordan who are huge boosters of performing arts throughout their region. The Chronicle has fine reporting – and it’s free. Colebrook is a rare town that also has a second newspaper, the subscription-based News and Citizen. Salmon Press publishes several area papers, including the Littleton Courier and Coos County Democrat, which share offices and an editor with the Berlin Reporter.
Speaking of the arts, where newspaper coverage is key, no one was more important to the early viability of Catamount Arts than the Caledonian Record. We started as a weekly film series in St. Johnsbury and Lyndonville and, every week, the Caledonian ran our press releases, describing each film. Everyone read the paper and it got us going. When we had a few bucks to spend on ads, we’d buy a one-inch front page box announcing that week’s title. Space is tougher to get these days, but the Caledonian continues to fully support the arts and other important community events.
Newspapers are under pressure these days. Like retail businesses everywhere, the internet has taken a big bite out of readership and revenue. And many newspapers have buckled under these pressures – or gone exclusively digital.
I don’t always agree with any newspaper I read. But that doesn’t matter. We need to keep our newspapers going – and strong. They connect us to each other. They stimulate conversations that lead to greater participation in town affairs. During a time of political partisanship, local newspapers focus on community issues where it is still possible to find a near consensus on many issues. How refreshing is that? Newspaper reporters write more thoughtfully and deeply than what you’ll find in many online sources, few of which cover our own towns.
Kids get to be aware of community life – and the fact that important things go on locally. If they read a paper, it prepares them to participate in civic life. Kids who read newspapers improve their critical thinking, stimulate global and local awareness, build vocabulary, and sharpen reading skills. They develop points of view on current events and can even check out the comics – amazing that they still exist!
During the so-called post-pandemic, I find myself placing greater value on local community assets and how we can build and strengthen them, through our active support. With more engagement, our newspapers will survive – and only get better.
Original source can be found here.
