The Importance of the Neighborhood Newspaper
Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
As a youngster growing up in Chicago in the 50s, there were four major newspapers in the city. Two of them, the Sun Times and Tribune, printed three editions each day.
There were many other newspapers at the time in the city. They were called the neighborhood papers and there were upwards of twenty of them throughout the Chicagoland area. These publications came out just once a week and carried the news of a specific area within the city.
My paper, The Lincoln Daily News, is just like those old neighborhood papers and I think the success of our publication and all the other little dailies or weeklies tells us a lot about ourselves.
People like to have information about themselves and their projects or accomplishments or milestones made known to everyone else. People, even the modest ones, have a sense of pride in themselves and what they do that often not only leads to an interesting story but also gives them a pick-me-up that you can just see on their faces.
It has been such fun talking to people about their stories and seeing their faces light up when you tell them it will be in tomorrow's or the day after that's edition. People for all their modesty love to brag about themselves, their family or their organization if given a chance.
I think we as a culture also are a little corny and I mean that statement with great fondness. For every picture of a serious event I publish, I receive five times more correspondence for a picture of a little kid holding his prize winning pumpkin or a youngster chasing after his goat that got away.
For every mug shot, there are more thanks for showing a picture of the school band practicing for football season in the August heat.
At a senior citizens center the other day I wanted to take a picture of all the girls dishing out chicken noodle lunches to visitors and when I asked them to smile, they nearly killed each other making sure they got the best spot in the picture.
I have been joking to people to smile as I was about to make them famous. Some who have been in a few group snapshots are now saying the words before I do with huge smiles on their faces.
To be sure, the failing economy, and the price of food and the wars and all the other important events that shape our daily lives belong in the news and should be available for public discourse.
But there is more to us than just those stories. I guess it is up to the little neighborhood newspapers to tell us and show us that not everything in the world is wrong. Not everything is worthy of lamentation.
Maybe that's why neighborhood papers are still going strong and the bigger publications are all going under or suffering huge cutbacks.
Maybe the big papers forgot that not every story needs to be about something terrible requiring heavy investigating and expensive man hours to write. There are positive stories right in front of them, right in their own neighborhood if only they looked.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Mike I agree a local paper can become and is the heart and soul of a community. Unfortunately when they do not care to report "the rest of the story" they distort that communities perception or slant it in the direction they chose it to go. being the silent type I am there are a number of real issues here locally the paper refuses to touch. Frankly it has to do with health Care and health Care is about all this community has to offer any longer for jobs, except government types. Good article.Thanks Robert. Yes it is also important that a local paper handles the local issues. Otherwise they are just an agenda driven blog.I remember once asking my editor at another paper if I got drunk and ran my truck into the City hall if it would be in the paper. He said, "Yes, with a full color picture."We can't ignore local issues that have a bit of bite in them for sure, but there is more to us and I believe the little papers when being honest can bring that balance.Again, thanks for stopping by. Mike
You hit the nail on the head, Mike. I live in a suburb of Houston. I get the city paper every day (and actually read it) but there is a little weekly paper for just my area thrown in my front yard for free. Since I'm an information junkie, I always read it. They tell me which roads are scheduled for construction projects, where new business have opened up, which kids won something cool in this or that school competition, etc. Stuff the Houston Chronicle would never cover. My friends are always asking me how I know so much about what's going on in our little corner... it's all because of that little paper...Thanks Jean. Yes, the neighborhood paper has a job to do. In a way the bigger papers created the need for us. Thanks. Mike
Great article (as usual), Mike--but who's that guy in your photo slot??? Just kidding--great picture, too. All the small town's around me (and they are all small) just have a weekly paper and you're right they are the best reading because they are mostly about what's happening in our neck of the woods.SandraThanks Sandra. Yep, we like to read about us, especially when we didn't do something wrong. Thanks Mike
Mike,I'm sure this was a tongue-in-cheek article. Are you sure they even had paper and ink when you were young?Jim GriffinI'm just a kid Jim. Although I believe I saw your picture on a cave wall once with a headline saying you were retiring due to old age.Thanks buddy. Mike
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