Newspapers in Southeast Missouri rise to the challenge

EDITORIAL:

About a fifth of our country now lives in a news desert, according to research by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

They define this as “a place where residents in a community have very limited access to the sort of news and information that helps them make good everyday decisions, as well as good decisions that will affect the long-term quality of life of future generations.”

“I believe this is the most crucial issue facing the news industry and one of the most crucial issues facing our democracy, right now, is the availability of local news and information,” said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean of the Medill School.

Franklin oversaw the research report, “The State of Local News 2022.”

Things look a little different in Southeast Missouri.

While our newsrooms have gotten smaller over the years, we still have dedicated writers at the Daily American Republic, Dexter Statesman, Prospect-News, Standard Democrat, Delta Dunklin Democrat and Southeast Missourian who work hard every day to report on our communities, our neighbors and the topics that impact our lives.

Here at the DAR, we publish five days a week with a daily online and social media presence. Our sister papers across the region may have reduced their print days to three, two or once a week, but they also work hard to respond to breaking news and important events daily through digital platforms.

We do this in some places as a one or two-person newsroom, like in Dexter, where Josh Ayers was out this week for the first days of school at Dexter and Bernie, and prayer walks at Bloomfield and Dexter, as well as putting together and paginating the content for this week’s print edition, getting the content uploaded to the website and shared on social media.

Small businesses across the country are increasingly asking their staff members to become Jack and Jills-of-all-trades and the news industry is no different.

Here at the DAR, we know our print product doesn’t look the same as it did 10 or even five years ago, but we’re incredibly proud of the work that our staff does and of the individuals who continue to believe in our mission.

While our newsroom has not shrunk as much as some in recent years, the responsibilities of our staff have changed. Much like at Dexter, our reporters now tackle not only interviewing and writing about the important events in our community, but also laying out and paginating the print pages for the daily and monthly magazine projects, as well as overseeing the website and our social media channels.

That means in a recent week when staff member Mike Buhler wrote about an arrest made in a shooting on South B Street, the same day he was also paginating five pages for the Saturday print edition and helping get a lot of that content to our digital platforms.

This week, Samantha Tucker, Barbara Ann Horton and Misty DeJournett were all out at Butler County schools bright and early for the first days of school, and tackling stories about the search for a new police chief, county tax rates and donations to help local cancer patients. But also.... making sure that content was posted to four digital platforms, talking to folks for future stories, answering questions from readers and looking ahead to upcoming magazine projects. Our sports writers have had previews for region football, Mules’ soccer, softball, tennis, cross country and much more.

Beyond the bylines, there are even more dedicated staff members who are juggling just as many responsibilities to ensure that classified and legal ads are taken care of, ads are organized, built and placed on pages, and our print product makes it to homes and businesses.

Our print pages are finished by about 10:30 p.m. nightly and printed in Cape Girardeau. The newspapers are delivered to the DAR in Poplar Bluff around 2 a.m., when our drivers divide up the routes and begin delivering to post offices and businesses across our region.

They ensure the newspapers get same-day delivery to readers, through all kinds of weather and more than one encounter with deer, owls and even cows crossing rural roads in the pre-dawn hours.

It’s a team effort and the work we do every day means more to us than just a paycheck. It has to because it can be difficult, frustrating and overwhelming at times, but we also understand the importance of what we do and the legacy we continue.

All of the above mentioned newspapers have employees who have been a part of the communities they serve for many years. They have or are raising their children in those communities. They pay taxes and shop in those communities. They all want their communities to thrive.

Community newspapers like those in Southeast Missouri sometimes report on subjects that aren’t enjoyable. But newspapers have been called the “Fourth Estate” since early in our country’s history and were written into the nation’s First Amendment because truth matters. It’s our job to find that truth.

Beyond the new challenges we face, we know what we do today isn’t perfect. We have more we want to do and grow into.

We’re working hard every day to find the new paths we need to take as a news organization in a landscape that changes daily, or even hourly at times, while continuing to maintain and improve the traditions we have inherited.

We want to thank everyone who supports and believes in the value of a local newspaper.