Double Loss

OK, this was not a good week. On Tuesday I sat in a management team meeting for our small town newspaper. The three of us own and operate the paper, although assets are non-existent and profits are even rarer. But, we have always run the paper because the community needed and deserved it. A non-profit, all-volunteer organization, the Village Chronicles has been operating in one form or another for nearly seven years.

We began as a paper of positive voice and tone. We avoided the ‘gotcha’ behavior of so many publications. We wanted to chronicle the town as it is and encourage it to be all that it can be. Some people thought we were namby pamby, but hey, they weren't doing the work or paying the bills.

Our print run is 13,000 and 10,700 copies are mailed to each home and business in two communities. The rest are dropped at 35 or 40 locations with high traffic – restaurants, hotels, city halls, etc. No subscriptions were sold. Donations and ad sales were the sole source of revenue for the paper. And we maintained a low profit in politics. We didn't pick sides, didn't endorse candidates for public office; we do offer columns that explain controversies to educate the public so they would better understand what was going on in their local seats of government and make sense of the issues on their own.

Unfortunately one of our management team ran for city council a few years ago and withdrew. He had carved out an agenda for election that was decidedly not positively voiced, we argued that point with him. We didn't think his message was in keeping with the role and voice of the newspaper.

He is currently running for office again. Same agenda and same voice. We began the battle with him again. Even withheld publishing a column he had written. That edition was published fairly clean but a few items remained and the public reacted.

For his part he was upset that we would question his judgment and informed us Tuesday that he was resigning from the paper effective after the publication of our April issue. Just before the election.

Over the past weekend I was realizing that our disagreement with him had made me very uncomfortable. Although I feel our policy decision is sound, I realized the confrontation among friends who have worked together for nearly seven years ‘doing the impossible’ was destroying my will to remain with the newspaper. So I decided I would resign from the paper independent of my fellow team members.

He beat me to the resignation announcement!

So now the issue is more complex. For the short term, the paper could have survived my absence. The long term is another matter. But my team member also serves as our ad sales manager, IT manager and accountant. For the short term someone would have to step in and do that work as well.

I knew I was not able to do so. So the reality is: the paper will cease to exist in early April.

Two losses are taking place. A friendship on the one hand, and the newspaper on the other. Both are important to me. Both are irreplaceable.

The friendship loss is very personal and will not affect anyone else. But the loss of the paper will be felt by the entire community. At this point they don’t know this is happening. Even when they do learn of it, they will likely yawn and not be moved by it. A few weeks later, however, and something in the community’s life will be missed. At first they won’t be able to put their finger on it, but eventually they will know that a vital communication link has been lost. The community’s personality will likely shift a bit, too.

I think another important thing is this simple reality: a volunteer, non-profit entity formed to serve community needs failed to survive because no one stepped forward to help when needed. I have been seeking a managing editor to replace me. No takers. Our ad revenues are too low to afford hiring professional staff. Too much competition from non-print communication channels don’t you know? All in all this is not a good time for print journalism. Most newspapers are struggling financially. So are we.

If a community has difficulty forming volunteer groups to perform necessary services at no or low cost, then the community suffers. This is a symptom that needs to be addressed. Then too, the state of public discourse is in need of repair. Incivility is all too present. Opinion rules fact and logic. Meaningful dialog is thus hampered perhaps blocked entirely. Such is not good for the long term help of any community.

We are not afraid of the future; but we are alarmed for it. Meanwhile, those of us close to the newspaper will lick our wounds for both our losses: friendships and newspaper.

May our efforts not have been in vain!

February 12, 2015