As I was making my way through a colossal cappuccino and the Rutland Herald before dawn last weekend, the “Goings and comings” headline topping a column by Rutland Herald Executive Editor Steven Pappas, stopped me cold. In fact, it bolted my eyes wide open.
The accompanying photo spread, of Maine student newspapers, caught my eye but all I wanted to know was: Is Pappas leaving the Herald, or is the Herald itself leaving us — i.e., its readers?
If you missed Pappas’ column, then go find it, and read it through, or have someone else read it to you. This is assuming, of course, you care enough about the Rutland region, and about the businesses vital to this region, which includes this newspaper.
Anyone who cares about Rutland and reads the Pappas piece, can see the crux of it deals with why local newspapers are essential to our very democracy. As Pappas writes: “It comes down to support of local journalism — and those roles as watchdog, informer, historian and public trust — as an investment.”
In that sense, supporting local journalism is, in fact, everyone’s business — no matter who you are.
If you missed Pappas’ column because you’re not a Herald subscriber, or you didn’t buy the Herald over the weekend, or you rarely read the Herald, then it’s time to bolt your own eyes open. Because, if you’re not a regular Herald reader, then you’re missing out about the local people, local places and local activities that could enhance your own life, your own family’s well-being, your own children’s education and most especially, your own career and your own legacy.
Which begs the question of how newspapers define “readers” these days. My Italian father didn’t learn to read English well until he was a young adult and discovered the Philadelphia Daily News. He paid for it every day and labored through it on his subway ride home from his garment factory job. Not only did he learn English that way, but he also learned about America.
My own love of newspapers started in elementary school, but it was cemented for life when the Daily News published my first op-ed, a fierce rebuttal to a guy who asserted pornography was a good way to teach kids about sex. I was 22 and a sixth-grade teacher at the time. That first op-ed gave way to dozens of other articles I wrote about social issues, for suburban Philly papers and Philadelphia Magazine.
Given all that, and as someone who today is a consultant for charities and educational organizations, I care deeply about local newspapers as a precious public good — so much so I’m willing to call out those who don’t.
Perhaps the most alarming news for Vermont comes from a University of North Carolina report titled “The Expanding News Desert.” The report indicates, in a public health crisis like an epidemic or a disaster, government agencies often rely on local news sources to help identify and contain such crises. The report concludes social media is not nearly as reliable as local newspapers.
Last weekend, the publishers of several northern New Jersey newspapers, serving some of the most affluent suburbs in the country, issued a public plea to Gov. Phil Murphy to “please act to preserve New Jersey’s newspapers.” Reports abound about how investors have also gobbled up local newspapers in California, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Illinois, as well, their cost-cutting measures ultimately bludgeoning those newspapers to death.
A business that depends, in large part, on local advertising, also has to deal with the expenses of printing presses, delivery challenges and myriad threatening forces. If those forces continue to win, there won’t be enough resources left to invest in online news sources, either.
All the more reason the Herald, and other local papers, need our support. Rutlanders who bloviate about “community spirit” and “engagement,” who also are able to pay for the Herald, need to become subscribers. At least, become readers. “Readers” are those who, for example, don’t ask their friends or colleagues to send them screenshots of articles they should be reading on their own, whether in print or online.
Without those kinds of readers, we might very well see a “Comings and goings” headline about the Herald itself. In which case, it won’t be just me who’s stopped cold with eyes bolted open. In a flash, it could be Rutland, and maybe even Vermont itself.
Liz DiMarco Weinmann lives in Rutland.
