By Ron Womble
rwomble@morningsun.net
Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? -- Joni Mitchell
When Joni Mitchell wrote these words, she was talking about wild spaces, but she could just as well have been writing about local newspapers and journalists.
Northwestern University’s ongoing State of Local News Project has documented a drastic two-decades-long decline in the local news landscape across the U.S. Scores of researchers have studied the serious long-term effects that this decline is having on communities, institutions and the democratic structures we take for granted. It’s a sobering picture.
According to the Northwestern’s State of Local News report 2025, almost 40% of all local U.S. newspapers have vanished since 2005, leaving 50 million Americans with limited or no access to a reliable source of local news. At those newspapers that remain, reporting staffs have been slashed and at many locations printing frequency has been reduced drastically.
Today, many Americans find themselves living in news deserts – counties in which there is no longer any source of local news. In many other counties, one or two reporters struggle to cover the most basic events for papers that publish just once or twice a week.
Why should anyone care?
That’s a fair and very important question with a simple, two-fold answer – democracy and community.
Research backs up the anecdotal evidence that the loss of a local paper and the hometown journalists who work there has a measurable negative effect on a community. It’s an impact that spreads far beyond the number of actual subscribers to a newspaper.
Communities without local news face consequences that are clear and wide-ranging. At the very heart of the issue is our democratic system, itself. Studies show that voter turnout drops and fewer candidates run for office when local news declines. Voters who don’t feel informed aren’t likely to vote.
Government functions better because of local journalists. The very presence of a reporter in the room can have a significant positive effect on councils, commissions and boards as they discuss budgets, taxes and other issues of importance.
Community
The hometown newspaper has always played a critical role in our sense of community. It is a record of who we are and what matters to us. A small business relocates, storms bring flooding, the county fair adds a sausage contest, the county commission wrestles with zoning, a small city plans its budget, local athletes shine, a beloved wife and mother dies. These are the headlines that make up a typical issue of the Morning Sun. Individually, they may seem of little consequence, but added together, they are the fabric that binds us together as a community.
National news is dominated by conflict: red vs. blue, Democrat vs. Republican, them vs. us.
Local news reminds us of who we really are – diverse neighbors solving problems together.
Pittsburg and Crawford County nearly lost all of this. The newspaper that had been telling our story since the 1880s nearly joined that unhappy list of newspapers to close a few years ago.
Corporate owners had wrung as much out of the property as they could and the paper’s proud history seemed only a distant memory when a small group of citizens who believed in the importance of preserving Pittsburg’s daily newspaper stepped up to rescue the Morning Sun. It was never a long-term solution, but they gave the newspaper an opportunity to start again and begin the work of finding a model that is sustainable for the future.
For the past few years, that is what has been happening. First of all, the paper’s focus turned again to local news. Our small staff spends every day covering the stories that matter to residents of the city and the county.
Technology is playing a role, as well. In addition to the print version of the paper five days a week, the Morning Sun posts stories online as they happen and an e-edition every evening. We’ve just migrated to a new online content management system and we envision ways that this new platform will allow us to do exciting new things with formats in addition to print.
Partnerships have been and will be crucial to the future of the Morning Sun. Pittsburg State University has been an important partner in a number of ways. Another very important partner is the Community Foundation of Southeast Kansas, which oversees the Support Local Journalism Project.
That brings us to our most important partner, you.
Elsewhere in this issue, you will see a direct appeal for support. If you believe that local journalism is important for the community, please contribute to the Support Local Journalism Project c/o the Community Foundation of Southeast Kansas, 100 S. Broadway, Pittsburg, KS 66762.
