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Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon Middleburg’s Communit Community Newspaper Middleburg’s y Newspaper
Volume 19 Issue 2
Page 25
mbecc.com
May 26, 2022
Steeplechasing Stars at Glenwood and Great Meadow Page 12
Community Newspapers The Struggle and Value Are Real
A
Jackie Fishman
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Middleburg Annexation Proposals Facts vs. The Fiction
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Photo By Nancy Kleck
lthough we spend more time in front of screens and less with the printed page, there is a trend running counter to this. Community newspapers, both free and subscription-based, serve a need. They keep people connected to their communities and support local businesses. You are probably reading one of these “artifacts” right now. Picking up a The Middleburg Eccentric from your neighborhood store or library is something you do because you value the information affecting your daily life. But the financial struggle to stay viable is real. Both rising newsprint and gas prices affect these publications’ bottom lines. Then there are all the other rising costs including rent, salaries, and many other necessities. Loudoun Now Reports on Things that Matter to Readers The Loudoun Now is one of the local papers struggling with rising costs. According to publisher/editor, Norman K. Styer, “We report on things important to our community, such as happenings at the school board, court house, information you won’t find elsewhere. We go to meetings so you don’t have to.” The paper started up seven years ago when the Leesburg Today shut down. The publication started the week after Leesburg Today shut down. According to Styer, local business leaders saw the need for the paper and supported it right away. Styer says the most
significant challenge the paper faces is on the business side- a decrease in advertising. The paper has grown from 12 pages to 48, which means advertising needs to support this growth. Local advertising means the money stays in the local community. Leesburg Today also has an extensive online readership of 150,000 readers. However, Styer points out, “Print advertisers want to see ads in the physical paper.” Styer says they have created podcasts and vodcasts without advertising support. He hopes to reinstate “Morning Minute,” a vodcast featuring the top five stories which ceased 18 months ago. He is in the process of upgrading the paper’s current website. As for the future, Styer is considering a voluntary pay program- lots of papers are going that way, he says. Also, local people often ask him how they can help to ensure the paper’s existence. He would not consider a paywall, common to many online publications, because he says it runs counter to the paper’s community service mission. He says that while increased costs of newsprint and gas have affected the paper, but these are costs he cannot pass on to readers. Mountain Courier Continues to Serve Community Despite Rising Costs of Printing Jeffrey DeVito, publisher of the Mountain Courier says the cost of publishing his paper has increased significantly this year, from 33 cents per issue to 45 cents. He has not yet passed this increase on to his advertisers, instead maintaining the same advertising charges put into place