This month’s column is mainly from someone else because it illustrates a serious problem facing rural newspapers: How do they manage increasingly contentious public discourse and still maintain the public forum that any good local newspaper must be?

My survey of weekly editors in 2020 found that some had stopped publishing commentary on state and national issues and that others were tempering what they wrote because of what I called “the Trump effect” and the dominance of social media, where people on all sides of controversial issues say things that few would say if looking someone in the eye. I wrote a book chapter about it; you can read it at https://tinyurl.com/2c65vz4d.

Whatever you want to call it, that phenomenon is now poisoning local discourse. That was vividly illustrated by the New Year’s column of Sharon Burton, editor, and publisher of the weekly Adair County Community Voice in Columbia, Ky. It deserves to be read in full:

Editor ‘can handle mean,’ but can’t stand ‘baseless cynicism and unwillingness to think’

By Sharon Burton

I’ve been a journalist for several decades now, and I’m honored to have won my share of awards over the years. When it comes to annual newspaper contests, the ones I’ve been most proud of were awards for writing this column.

I’m proud to say I’ve won first place more than once, and there was a time when that encouraged me to bravely share my thoughts on this page, hoping that readers would take the journey with me as I called out elected officials when I believed it was needed, when I shared words of wisdom I had learned from life’s experiences, or even when I shared a warm story about family.

I often heard from readers who either loved what I have written or really, really didn’t like it, and either way, I knew I had encouraged others to spend at least a moment in thought about something important.

Today, the part of my week I dread the most is sitting down and writing this column. I leave it until I can no longer avoid it, and this page is often the last one to make it to the printers.

Our world has changed – no, we say, the world, but in all honesty, people have changed. Because people have changed, the world has become an ugly place for us to exchange ideas and thoughts. So many people no longer value the voice of others, and it breaks my heart every week when I realize that I no longer feel encouraged to share ideas with hope that we can all learn together.

When I would write something others might disagree with, I enjoyed the calls or visits from them as we talked about our disagreements. I learned from a better journalist than myself to use the opportunity to ask for letters to the editor – to even offer to type them up so that the person who disagrees with me can share his or her opinion on the very same page where I express mine.

Those have always been my favorite conversations, the ones with the people who disagree with me. I didn’t always change my mind, although sometimes I did, but mostly it helped me view the world from a different perspective, and I think we all become better people when we can do that. I don’t have to agree with someone to empathize with a countering viewpoint; I only have to respect that person as another human with ideas, emotions, thoughts and experiences of his or her own.

I wanted to write this week about the past year and my hopes for 2023, but to be honest, I don’t feel like sharing. While newsprint doesn’t give readers the chance to write nasty little comments below the article, the free-flowing river of hate and trolling we are bombarded with daily on social media has cost us more than we realize. It has cost us accountability.

We embrace the free flow of opinion without expecting any forethought or, heaven forbid, some research or thorough reading. In the past, I always knew I better do my homework before writing about a subject on this page. Readers expected me to be informed, and I did not want to disappoint.

We used to be a community where we stood side by side with the very people we considered different from ourselves. Now, we can’t even have a winter storm that people aren’t ridiculing others because they do or don’t believe in global warming, because they think electric vehicles do or don’t make sense, or whatever the latest thing is that most people have done very little research on but hold a very strong opinion about.

It’s not even the lack of being informed that bothers me the most. It’s the attacking attitude toward others with a different opinion that boggles my mind. Why be so mean?

Don’t misunderstand – I can handle mean. I’ve had someone come into my office and rip the newspaper up in front of me (or attempt it; newsprint does not tear easily). I’ve had the paper slung across my desk in anger. I’ve had phone calls where some very nasty words were used, and I’ve had my Christianity questioned more than once. It’s all part of the job.

But I understood that those people were invested in the topic I had written about. An article didn’t sit well with their values; an elected official didn’t get his way; a family member made the news for breaking a law and they wanted me to cover it up. Those tirades I can handle.

It’s the baseless cynicism and unwillingness to THINK that has me discouraged about mankind. It’s the blind support of viewpoints with no interest whatsoever of exchanging thoughts and ideas. It’s the inability to think there is more out there for you to learn.

It takes the fun out of being right, and it certainly takes the fun out of being wrong. In the past, I’ve used this spot to share my thoughts, knowing it could go either way. I knew my readers were looking out for me, letting me know when I said something that made an impression on them and having my back when I missed the mark.

While the awards have been fun, in truth, my favorite response to “One Voice” has always been, “I don’t always agree with you, but I enjoy reading your column.”

When did we stop enjoying the people with whom we disagree?

If I were to pick out my hopes for 2023, it would be that we become a kinder, gentler world, that we see and embrace the imperfections of one another, that we seek knowledge, and we view the world through the lens of grace.

We can only better ourselves when we allow ourselves to be imperfect in front of one another. It’s through that experience that we learn, and we still have a lot to learn.

What you have just read is a frustrated editor trying to have a civil conversation with her community. At least she is still trying. I know some editors (especially those who are also publishers) who have cut back or given up that valuable work because it’s become a windmill tilt and they think they have better things to do, including keeping their newspapers in business.

But sustaining rural journalism also requires making your paper valuable, and you’re in a unique position to be an honest broker of facts and opinion, offering a fair forum to all. Research has shown that the more editorials and columns a paper publishes, the more letters to the editor it gets. It becomes a meeting place for civil conversations.

Some editors have told me they don’t write columns or editorials because they don’t have enough to write about every week. You don’t have to write every week, and picking your shots can increase your impact. On the off weeks, try to fill the hole with something other than politicians’ columns. Recruit thoughtful readers, and offer to help them polish their pieces. Foster civil conversation, and make it your brand.

Cynthia G. Simison, whose career at The Republican stretches back nearly 50 years, will retire as its executive editor on March 1. She will be succeeded by Larry Parnass, who has had a presence in journalism in Western Massachusetts since the 1980s.

George Arwady, publisher and CEO of The Republican, announced the change in leadership.

“Cynthia has been the heart of The Republican for a half-century,” Arwady said. “Although no one in this organization has ever worked harder for longer, bringing the highest standards of professional journalism to our communities, it is the heart she has for the people we’ve covered that really shines throughout her excellent writing and editing.”

Read more at MassLive

New Hampshire’s preeminent high school journalism award is inviting submissions for The 2023 Brodsky Prize, established by a former editor of the Manchester  Central High School newspaper to encourage out-of-the-box efforts and innovation by a new generation of student journalists. The $5,000 Brodsky Prize is open to all New Hampshire high school students, attending public, charter, or parochial schools.

This year’s Prize is open to students using traditional print journalism and those producing news via electronic media, including broadcasting, podcasting, and blogging. 

Judging criteria include a student’s journalistic initiative and enterprise, as well as what Jeffrey  Brodsky calls “a contrarian nature and out-of-the-box thinking.” Interested students should submit examples of their work that are illustrative of the prize criteria, including links to electronic submissions, along with a completed application. Applications can be submitted to thebrodskyprize.org.

The deadline is March 31, 2023. 

“Working on the school newspaper was the most formative and meaningful high school experience for me — more than any classroom,” Jeffrey Brodsky said. “It’s more important than  ever for young journalists to push boundaries and to challenge authority, and they can start by  using the power of their school paper just like the press in the professional world.” 

When Brodsky, now 48, and Manchester Central classmate Misbah Tahir assumed co-editorship of the “Little Green” newspaper, they turned it into a broadsheet publication, added color photography, and introduced new design and typography. They revitalized a stagnant student newspaper circulation read by 20% of the school’s population, boosting readership to over 75%  of Central’s students. 

They also encouraged student reporters to ask tough questions and explore different topics. It was an editorial questioning the transparency of freshman class elections that got the two editors in trouble with the school administration, which felt identifying a faculty member in its criticism was out of line. 

The two editors found themselves sidelined, briefly. Then, the school appointed a new faculty advisor and the paper was back in business, continuing to win local and national journalism honors. Brodsky was featured in the non-fiction book, “Death by Cheeseburger”, which chronicled censored high school journalism around the nation. Brodsky later testified before the New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee about student press rights. 

After graduating from Central in 1992, Brodsky studied oral history and communications at  Columbia University, becoming a historian and documentary producer, before illness forced his retirement and return to his hometown. At Columbia, his signature project was interviewing prominent politicians about their first political campaigns. Brodsky conducted extensive interviews with more than 84 U.S. governors, senators, two Speakers of the U.S. House, and heads of state from South America, Europe, Africa, and New Zealand. Brodsky wrote about his experiences in a feature article in The Washington Post Magazine, and Brodsky was extensively interviewed by Michel Martin for National Public Radio, NPR. 

The Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications helps oversee the award program and provides one of the judges, Executive Director Laura Simoes. Longtime judges are Howard Brodsky,  Jeffrey’s father, and Chairman and CEO of CCA Global Partners; Misbah Tahir, the former Little  Green co-editor, now a biotechnology finance executive and former NH Union Leader and  Sunday News president and publisher Joseph McQuaid, and Leah Todd, New England regional manager of the Solutions Journalism Network. 

More information on The Brodsky Prize, including past winners, is available at brodskyprize.org.  More information about the Loeb School can be found at loebschool.org. 

Congratulations go out to Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, General Assignment Reporter and News Editor at The Patriot Ledger for being named to Editor and Publisher’s 2023 “25 Under 35” list.

She is originally from Texas but moved to Boston 10 years ago to study journalism at Northeastern University. In her time at the paper, she has won NENPA awards for reporting in the categories of education, government reporting, ethnic/racial issues, spot news, weather, and economic reporting.

When asked for the article what keeps her optimistic about working in our industry she said, “The stories themselves and the readers who love them. There is no better feeling than breaking a big story, highlighting someone who deserves the spotlight, or making connections with subjects. My role has allowed me to carve out my own beats, find and break stories in local communities and write about what I love. Hearing feedback from readers looking forward to the coverage, excited to see their neighborhood in the paper, or grateful to have a local issue highlighted shows me that there will always be a place for well-reported, local news.”

The intent of E&P’s 25 Under 35 list is to showcase the industry’s future leaders that are inspired, passionate, and innovative, so we can all be reinvigorated by their fresh ideas and talent.

Check out the full Editor & Publisher 25 Under 35 List

Earlier this week, NENPA spoke to Massachusetts State Representative Jeffrey Rosario Turco about the bill he introduced in mid-January which would institute a new tax credit reimbursing any Massachusetts resident up to $250 a year for the cost of subscribing to local newspapers. 

Turco, whose district covers Winthrop and Revere, said he was inspired to craft the bill after speaking with the leaders of the Revere Journal about some of the struggles their newspaper is facing.

In a Boston Globe article published this week, Turco said his hope is “that the bill would help to generate extra revenue for the state’s newsrooms. You can get a subscription and effectively it’s going to cost you nothing.”  

The bill is based on similar efforts at the federal level such as the Local Journalism Sustainability Act which has stalled in Congress. That legislation would have instituted a tax credit for subscribers, a payroll tax credit for news organizations that compensate local journalists, and a tax credit for small businesses advertising in local news outlets.

Massachusetts publishers are encouraged to review the bill and, if you support it, contact your state representative.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

The American Journalism Project, with support from the Google News Initiative, is launching a local news incubator. The program is intended to support entrepreneurs who want to explore launching a new nonprofit local news organization to serve their communities.

Individuals and small teams with ideas for new local news organizations can apply for this 18-month incubator, which will provide both startup capital and expert counsel. For this cohort, we will select up to four individuals or pairs. Founders will receive $400,000 to pursue their startup full-time and spend 18 months researching, developing an editorial strategy to fill the local news and information needs they identify in a given market, fundraising, coalition-building, and preparing to launch an organization.

The deadline to apply for the cohort is February 15, 2023. You can learn more and submit your application here. If you have any questions, please contact incubator@theajp.org.

NOTE: Before you apply, AJP encourages you to take this eligibility quiz here to see if the incubator is a good fit for you.

Learn more