Ink flows in the rivers of Nebraska. It’s beneath the soil in the Missouri River Valley and mixed in the rolling hills and canyons of the Sandhills.
Community newspapers are an aspect of the journalism industry too often ignored or carelessly lumped in a category with struggling metro and national dailies. However, this simply isn’t the case.
“Home Town Journalism: The Dynamics of Community Newspapers” aims to explain the function and success of the rural newspaper through case studies presented in a multi-media format. This project shows newspapers are alive and well in the state of Nebraska, barely yielding to economic strains and moving forward with technology like any other news media.
In cities and towns with community newspapers with a circulation of 25,000 or less, 86 percent of the population reads a community newspaper each week, according to the National Newspaper Association and the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s 2008 research.
Eighty percent, or about 8,000, of America’s newspapers have a circulation of 15,000 or less, according to the National Newspaper Association. In Nebraska, 165 newspapers deliver news to less than 5,000 people each week. These newspapers are often the only source of news for the communities they serve.
Nebraska community newspaper publishers and editors said they are comfortable with their papers’ financial situations and don’t anticipate closures or drastic profit loss. In fact, all publishers and editors included in this study said they were profiting. This seems to be a good sign for community newspapers, particularly in Nebraska.
Method
In the fall of 2009, 25 of 165 Nebraska community newspapers with circulations less than 5,000 received a survey in the mail. This survey asked for information regarding the success of their publications, staff sizes and readerships. Two surveys were sent to the Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald for comparison purposes, but editors of these dailies did not return the survey. Of the 27 surveys, eight were returned. All respondents were asked to participate in a video interview for this project during February and March 2010.
The results of these case studies are valuable to community journalists and mass media students. The journalism resources page on this website contains valuable links and information for editors and publishers. Based on story content and overall findings, journalism students can see the viability of small-town newspapers as places for future employment.
