Impact marks 1 year of community news, storytelling

Celebrations are in order.

Not just because it's finally warming up, but because The Sumter Item Impact turns one as of this issue.

The Item went through a huge transition last year around this time. We decided to take the never-easy path of switching to printing two days a week. Myriad factors, many of which are out of our control and being faced by newspapers big and small throughout the country, led to the move. Paper and printing costs are up. Big box stores spend less money on advertising and coupon inserts. Social media and the internet, while ideologically a great way to connect in ways we couldn't before, gave rise to so much information at our fingertips that there is constant competition for your attention. While this can hold information disseminators accountable, it also leads to choice paralysis and information numbness.

When a newspaper closes, especially a local one - we are family owned and operated out of Sumter County since 1894 - a credible source for community-level information usually does not replace it. And this is happening at an alarming rate. According to the State of Local News 2024 report, part of a decade-long project researching thousands of newspapers and digital sites, more than 3,200 print newspapers have shuttered since 2005. They continue to disappear at a rate of more than two per week, including 130 in the last year alone.

"In our 2022 report, the State of Local News Project predicted that by the end of 2025, the United States would have lost one-third of its print newspapers over the past two decades. In this year's report, we found that the country has already exceeded that mark. A little fewer than 5,600 newspapers remain, 80% of which are weeklies," project members write in the report.

As this contraction continues, in their place, news deserts spread like a disease that thrives off the mistrust in media, misinformation on social media and lack of pride in our communities that take root in the absence of access to critical information needs. Needs like public safety and health information, civic engagement, ways to get to know where you live and even existential needs like weather forecasts.

A news desert, as defined by the Local News report, is a county without any news source. Its residents have no access to local information. Instead, they pay attention to social media, regional TV's breaking news headlines and national politics, becoming more polarized and less capable of discerning fact from opinion or even misinformation.

There are 206 counties considered news deserts in the U.S.

Sumter is one of the 1,561 with only one source.

And that's where I'll put a stop sign to the doom and gloom. Because change is inevitable, and no matter the situation, if you fight it, you'll probably be sunk by it. That's our mindset at The Sumter Item. We will make changes as needed for a future that continues to include a local news source for Sumter's citizenry.

Maybe our biggest decision in the changes we made last year was to put this then-new Item Impact out for free. Despite cost challenges and all those scary numbers, we believe having access to local news, whether it's about serious government topics or entertaining food and business spotlights, makes for a better quality of life when the people around you are more informed.

We simply can't do this without our community partners. If you're a local business or want to get your message to the largest printed news audience in Sumter, look no further. We direct mail this monthly paper at no charge to over 28,000 households and businesses in Sumter (it's also available at our office). Please reach out if you're interested by emailing advertising@theitem.com. I can also help direct you or answer other general questions at kayla@theitem.com.

Thanks for being part of this journey. We're planning to stick around for many anniversaries to come.

For a more in-depth look back through our inaugural year of The Item Impact, see page 4.