Opinion

What we do to survive, and why

It seems every time I sit down to write these days, it has something to do with journalism and the state of our industry. Forgive me my obsession, but during this time of isolation it’s difficult to concentrate for long on any other topic. I am obsessed — a strong word, I know, but the truth — with steering our company through this strange, once-ina-lifetime business disruption. (I suspect that many business owners are suffering the same middle-of-the-night, toss-and-turn moments. I wish you all success in figuring it out.)

In the beginning and the end, though, our model starts with our local advertisers. We appreciate every one of the local businesses who spend their marketing dollars with us. If you’re perusing this paper or our websites or our newsletters, go out of your way to spend your hardearned dollars with them. They need you now more than ever.

As most know, local and national journalism — especially traditional print newspapers and their websites — have been struggling for years. There are plenty of statistics on job and revenue losses documenting that fact. The primary reason is ad revenue moving online, where behemoths like Google and Facebook gobble up around 80 percent of that online revenue. The rest of us get to nibble on their crumbs.

Then came this pandemic, which has ravaged the industry. More layoffs and potential closings, etc. We originally cut eight full-time equivalencies and many of our freelancers. We are now undergoing a phased re-hiring of all of those people.

The other side of that coin, however, has become even more clear as we move through this pandemic: communities suffer when they lose their newspapers or some source to cover local and regional governments and community events. Participation in civic life erodes when there is no local journalism. Voter turnout decreases and the cost of government — higher taxes, more waste — are the consequence of the lack of credible news.

Joshua Benton, the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab, said this: “Local newspapers are basically little machines that spit out healthier democracies.”

So how is The Smoky Mountain News navigating a course through this unprecedented disruption?

For one, we started diversifying our business 15 years ago, and that model was accelerated as the 2008 recession hit us hard. We have a couple of magazines, numerous custom publications to order, and more. That side of our business is also suffering, but it has helped though the years and will continue to do so in the future. All our eggs aren’t in one basket.

And in what is a perhaps ironic twist, we’ve received grants from Facebook. Many in the media — me included — have blamed them over the years for doing harm to local newspapers.

But when I heard they were first giving out grants for COVID-19 coverage, I took the time and applied. We were awarded $5,000 in early April.

Then Facebook announced a second round of grants, the Facebook Journalism Project COVID 19 program, aimed at helping local media outlets (profit and nonprofit, online or print) to cover the pandemic for the rest of 2020, and to take steps to improve their business model. The mission, according to the project’s website, is this: “… to strengthen the connection between journalists and the communities they serve. It also helps to address the news industry’s core business challenges.”

Then, there are our readers and supporters. Back in November, we started asking readers for donations to help support our business. We thought many of you who have been reading for 20 years — and who were in a position to do so — might see fit to make a contribution.

The timing of that ask was both lucky and somewhat prescient.

Five months later came the pandemic and the disruption, and the response from readers has been nothing short of overwhelming. We’ve received checks in the mail, online payments, and people walking in the door and handing us envelopes with money. It has been gratifying for our staff to realize that people think local news and this newspaper are important. Again, thank you all.

And we’re taking advantage of other avenues. We’ve received SBA money and have applied for a low-interest loan from the state Golden Leaf Rapid Recovery Fund. These monies will help us chart our way through this current crisis. Editor Scott McLeod

We were awarded a $75,000 grant that came with very specific parameters: continue pandemic coverage and upgrade our digital products. I was shocked to win, but I also felt we were deserving. And — kind of like public radio — I think we need to let readers know that we got the grant.

Trust me when I say the terms in no way ask us to compromise our coverage of Facebook or its owner Mark Zuckerberg or anything like that. Our company would not go down that path, never.

My point is that we are pursuing all these revenue streams for a very simple reason: so we can afford to continue to provide uncompromising, honest journalism for this region. Ryan Tuck is a professor at UNC and runs a statewide journalism blog called NC Local. In emails with him, this is what I said about getting the grant:

“You know, we have learned a lot about our business over the last two months, and it has reinforced the need to be nimble and quick on our feet. I want to foster a company culture that says act like a start-up, always be hungry, that nothing is sacred except survival, and it’s imperative we survive so we can produce ethical, meaningful journalism that helps this region navigate the uncertain future that lies ahead.” (Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)

Take action now to protect voting To the Editor:

Long lines, limited polling place hours, inconvenient polling locations, not getting time off work and the COVID-19 virus all make one of our most sacred rights — voting — a hurdle for many Americans.

All states need to offer no-excuse mail-in absentee voting to every eligible voter to ensure that everyone has the ability to vote.

Last week, a Texas state judge said that he’ll issue an order allowing all Texans to vote absentee due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, less than an hour after the attorney general’s office threatened criminal prosecution for groups recommending voters concerned about contracting the virus request absentee ballots (Texas is one of a number of states that requires voters to present an excuse in order to vote absentee). While the Texas order is certain to be appealed, just this past weekend, Gov. Cuomo of New York issued an executive order to lift all “mandatory excuses” to vote absentee in that state.

Many states are embracing voting reform. Virginia, for example, recently established automatic voter registration through the state Department of Motor Vehicles, meaning all eligible DMV customers will automatically be registered unless they opt out (at least a form is offered in North Carolina). Virginia also made Election Day a state holiday, removed the excuse requirement to vote absentee, allowed voters to permanently receive an absentee mail ballot in all future elections, extended the close of polling on Election Day an additional hour and established alternative in-person voting methods such as curbside voting.

Some states have already acted quickly to allow residents to vote at home by sending ballots or absentee ballot applications by mail to all their citizens but in 15 states, voters still need to submit an excuse to be able to vote at home. Just this month, absentee voting in Wisconsin went from 5 to 71 percent. Our own state is among only five others to have no-excuse absentee voting, joined by Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Florida. Kentucky Gov. Beshear’s recent executive order says that all voters “should use mail-in voting.” Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a bill to conduct Utah’s June 30 primaries entirely by mail and cancel in-person voting, except for those with disabilities. All 53 North Dakota counties say they will conduct the state’s June 9 primaries

LETTERS

entirely by mail, following an executive order from Republican Gov. Doug Burgum.

We need to act now to ensure that all voters can safely participate in our elections this November. If we act together, we can win the funding and reforms we need to protect our vote. Ralph Andrew

Waynesville

America should open up To the Editor:

Some people call it common sense, others call it critical thinking or logic, and it is so essential to human kind that the survival of the species depends on it.

I am befuddled about those who don’t understand it, practice it or agree with it, as if you can argue about whether humankind should live or die.

The high visibility of anti-intellectual, antiscientific attitudes can be traced right back to President Trump, who proudly flaunts his disdain for learning.

I want society to open back up as much as anyone, but I don’t want it at the expense of mega death.

The logic is pretty straight-forward: test, use PPE, practice social distancing, get the numbers down,THEN open up cautiously. Like, you put your socks on before your shoes. What is so hard about that, folks?

Obama had America prepared for such a pandemic, but Trump dismantled that program so he could rid the government of the ‘taint’ of one of our best leaders (who happens to be fairly adept at logic.) And then he gave the extra cash from a hollowed out government to his rich friends with a tax break. Yes, the bestest, most beautiful businessman.

The time to gear up production of PPEs and research an effective test and vaccine was in February or March. The administration had been warned several months earlier.

Where has he been, what has he done with his time, beside jeering at prepared people as perpetrating a hoax and abdicating all responsibility?

He tells states they are on their own, then intercepts their shipments and doles them out to red states.

This is not the behavior of a leader.

Caryl Brt Waynesville

Time to re-ignite national service programs C OVID-19 has given me the opportunity to sit and think. Not just daydream. I am not sure whether this is good or bad. This is one of those times.

I thought back to the time six months ago when everything was normal. A young lady and a young gentleman, both Franklin High School grads now finishing college, asked me to write them a letter of reference. I was honored to do so. I believe we will hear great triumphs from them as they experience life. FHS does that.

I hope both will go into national service. If we learn anything from this shutdown it is public service is one of the highest callings a person can experience. Which brings me to my point for today.

We need local, state and national service. I agree with one of my favorite columnists, David Brooks of the New York Times, who wrote this week that there is a passionate, idealistic generation out there that “sees the emergency, wants to serve those around them and groans to live up to this moment.”

At no time that I can remember have we had as many people in politics who never served in the military, the Peace Corps, Public Health Service, or AmeriCorps teaching students in inner-city schools.

We are seeing the need in rural areas such as ours for these programs. Many of the people who helped build Franklin and Macon County came here as members of the CCC during the Great Depression. They stayed on. Integrating into the community. We see the results of their service to this day. Especially in the National Forest.

issue but a health issue. I am a senior citizen with a heart condition placing me in a highrisk category, so am extremely concerned about staying COVID-19 free.

Therefore it is discouraging to visit grocery stores and see many people without masks. I wear mine to protect you and your family in case I have the virus and don’t show any symptoms and don’t know I have it. I would hope you would care about protecting me and my family from the possibility that you may have it. My life and that of others may depend on it. I have many friends who fear going to the stores for this reason. One friend has an extremely highrisk young child and is afraid she will bring it back home to him.

Some stores do have special hours for high-risk shoppers and the opportunity to order online and pick up, but that is limiting and shoppers not wearing masks may also shop during those special hours so the masked shoppers are still exposed to those unmasked shoppers. I heard this quote in several places: “having some people wear masks and some not is like having a peeing section in the swimming pool.”

Voluntary national service has some bipartisan support. As we dig out from this pandemic, let us look seriously at giving our young citizens the opportunity to serve. There are far more young people wanting to serve than our government provides. Public service funding has been seriously cut while corporate funding has soared.

Can a nation survive when we do not encourage and make public service available? Our young’uns want to be a part. Nationally we are seeing membership in civic clubs, veterans’ organizations, and so forth, decline. I think it is because we have tended to play down service as we have turned politics into a profession rather than a service.

Let us consider bailing out our younger generation with the opportunity for local, state and national service. Now. We can pay for it. COVID-19 gives us the excuse for doing so.

In 1963 I had finished basic training and active duty in the National Guard when I was accepted into the Peace Corps to work in Panama, rural health. But I had to make a choice between the Peace Corps or to attend officer candidate school. I chose the latter. I often wonder what the Peace Corps would have made of me as a person if I had spent two years in rural Panama?

I do not think either the Army or the Peace Corps would consider an old geezer such as myself this late in life. So, open those doors for the younger generation. Give them a chance to serve.

I have memories. I can sit and think. What if …? (Bob Scott is Mayor of Franklin. scoopscott@aol.com) Guest Columnist Bob Scott

A solution to this could be to establish morning mask-only shopping for a few hours each day, leaving the vast majority of shopping time available to mask-optional shoppers.

I was at Haywood Appliances in Clyde the other day and was pleased to note that no one was allowed in without a mask and some were provided. I’m also hearing that most, if not all, airlines are requiring all passengers to wear one. I also heard the CEO of Walmart state that one of his main concerns was customers who did not follow CDC guidelines for wearing masks and maintaining social distance from others.

If you are also concerned, please share this idea with the managers of local stores you use. We’re all in this together, so let’s help each other stay safe and stop the spread. Nancy Copeland

Waynesville

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR FALL 2020

The Catamount School, a school for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in Jackson County, is accepting 6th, 7th and 8th grade registrations for the 2020-21 school year. Operated by Western Carolina University’s College of Education and Allied Professions in cooperation with Jackson County Public Schools, The Catamount School is designed to explore innovative teaching approaches and applied learning opportunities in order to help every student discover his or her full academic potential. The school is a public lab school operated on the campus of Smoky Mountain High School and is free to accepted students and their families.

APPLY TODAY FOR AUGUST ENROLLMENT! TO LEARN MORE AND APPLY, GO TO CATAMOUNTSCHOOL.WCU.EDU

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