Commentary: 2 newspapers are closing a week. The Sumter Item wants to buck the trend.
If there was an organization that told you how the people you elected are spending your tax dollars, would you support it?
What if there was an organization that told you how your local school board's votes are impacting your children's education? Would you support it?
Would you support an organization that celebrates local athletes, or an organization that follows hometown all-stars through the NBA, MLB and NFL, or one that takes you inside new businesses and restaurants, that finds reliable information to quash or confirm public safety rumors, that highlights kids and adults doing projects or community work, that investigates wrongdoing, that holds public officials accountable, that lists obituaries, weddings, engagements, classifieds, things for sale, pets that can be adopted?
The good news is there is an organization in Sumter that provides all those services. It can help you be an informed citizen who uses that information to make decisions for you and your family. It's family owned, independently operated and has been around since 1894.
The bad news is if it closes, there's no other option in Sumter, Clarendon or Lee County that will give you that information on a daily basis. And an average of two organizations just like it are closing every week in this country.
Two newspapers a week. Gone. We've lost more than 360 in the pandemic and more than a quarter of them all since 2005. A fifth of our country's population is now without a local news organization or in an area where it's at risk of losing the one left.
A term was coined a few years ago and has been growing since amid closures and cutbacks. A news desert is a community that is not regularly covered by a local outlet. They have "limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level."
When those papers close, they're often in "economically struggling, traditionally underserved communities that need local journalism the most." When they close, those communities are not getting a print or digital replacement, Penelope Muse Abernathy said in her fifth-annual report on the state of local news.
When that happens, people become ignorant of what's going on around them.
"Voter participation declines, corruption in both government and business increases, and local residents end up paying more in taxes and at checkout," Abernathy wrote.
This all contributes to the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Political polarization becomes rampant, as does a reduced trust in media. The situation is a "crisis for our democracy and our society."
Despite this bleak forecast, there is a rainbow in Sumter County.
While many surviving newspapers cut staff and print days in the pandemic, The Sumter Item did not.
While the largest chains that control many of the nation's remaining newspapers - hedge funds, private equity groups of other investment firms, Abernathy reports - focus their business strategies on consolidation and closing unprofitable papers that don't sell, The Sumter Item is independently and family owned, giving its staff the autonomy and space to innovate.
While "newspapers are dying" is a trope, The Sumter Item has spent the last five years transforming into a multimedia local news company. From our all-positive video news show, Sumter Today, and the aesthetic design of all our products to the newsletters we send to readers' emails and our commitment to retain a staff that is reflective of the community we serve and tells stories of our many audiences, our goal is to give readers what they want and need to understand the world around them. To listen and learn. To tell stories, inform and entertain.
Population data from the U.S. Census Bureau show the nation is aging while getting more diverse. Younger adults in their early 20s and 30s are leaving large metro areas. Our goal is to deliver reliable, informative and engaging local news that serves a diversifying population on the platforms and devices they are already using.
"Some legacy news outlets are deftly transforming from print to digital," said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and director of the Medill Local News Initiative, who oversaw the State of Local News 2022 research with Abernathy, a visiting professor at Northwestern and the primary author of the report. "There are unheralded local news leaders who are adapting and experimenting with new models. And local news is increasingly being delivered through newsletters and other digital platforms. But the need to innovate is urgent."
We know the stakes are high, the obstacles higher.
We also know we can't do it alone. Support of local news by the community it serves is vital. Whatever that means to you, from a like on social media to a digital subscription to renewing your print delivery, it is noticed and appreciated.
I see it in individual testimonies. A handwritten note from a subscriber thanking a reporter for her thoughtful coverage of both the arts and courts. A growing sample size of people on social media paying attention to local government by tracking school board votes. A small business continuing to sponsor an upcoming event we're hosting this fall for the first time since the pandemic.
Like anything in the story of evolution, what doesn't evolve dies. It can happen slowly so that you don't realize what you're missing until it's gone, too late. We must adapt. And unlike earthly evolution, we must do it now.
*Kayla Green is executive editor of The Sumter Item.