'It's necessary for a community to thrive': Rural newspapers refocus their publications as news deserts grow

Yahoo

19-05-2025

May 18—On the front page of a recent issue of the Newport Miner, three stories captured daily life in a small Washington town: local schools embracing artificial intelligence, citywide sewer maintenance and a police response to a fleeing suspect.
Michelle Nedved, publisher of the Miner for the past 22 years, said these types of community stories have remained central to the paper's mission. What's changed, she said, is how the paper is reaching its readers in an era of social media and the rapid change of technology.
"We've made some improvements in technology. We're branching out into digital advertising, which I think that community newspapers, especially, have really resisted. But you have to meet people where they're at, and if we can hook them on the internet and then bring them to print — then that's the ultimate goal," Nedved said.
The Statesman-Examiner, the Newport Miner and the Columbia Basin Herald — three rural newspapers in Eastern Washington — have adapted their strategies to stay relevant and remain essential sources of trusted local news.
"I think that we're finally joining the 21st century," Nedved said.
Rising news deserts
Gabriel Cruden, owner and publisher of several newspapers in Eastern Washington, including the Statesman-Examiner, Deer Park Tribune and the North Columbia Monthly, said the rise of the internet plays a major role in the growing number of what are called "news deserts," particularly in small towns.
"There are so many sources for news and information, but most of it is not dialed into that specific local area," Cruden said. "A lot of people may largely get their local information from places like Facebook, and that's not being disseminated according to journalism standards."
Cruden began working at the Statesman-Examiner in the late 1990s, right out of high school, before leaving for college and exploring other careers.
But after watching local papers struggle to survive and seeing the lack of local news in the area, he took a leap of faith and purchased the Statesman Examiner and Deer Park Tribune last year.
"The newspapers were still being published weekly, just a few pages, very few ads, minimal reporting, and not to the print quality one would expect from contemporary printing technology. Subscribers had dropped off, with more on the way out," Cruden said. "The Deer Park Tribune had closed its Deer Park office and was run entirely out of the Colville office."
He said they've gained more than 450 subscribers for the Statesman-Examiner and a couple dozen for the Deer Park Tribune since he took ownership. He added they are in the process of reopening an office in Deer Park.
"It's taken off. We've got such an overwhelmingly positive response from the community," Cruden said. "So many people are happy to have their newspaper back."
Other newspapers, however, haven't been so fortunate.
According to Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism's State of Local News Project, the number of local news deserts expanded in the U.S. last year as 127 newspapers closed their doors.
This leaves nearly 55 million people with limited to no access to their local news, according to the 2024 report. More than 7,000 newspaper jobs vanished between 2022 and 2023, compared to a few hundred the year before, the report also states.
Just 124 miles away from Spokane, the Grant County Journal closed its doors in 2023 after 116 years of local community reporting.
R. Hans Miller, managing editor at the Columbia Basin Herald, said even though the Journal was doing important journalism, the paper struggled because it didn't go digital.
"The folks that owned it, they wanted to retire, and they didn't want anyone else to have something that they'd built and change it into something they couldn't recognize," Miller said. "And I really think, looking at it, in my own opinion, that part of the problem was they kept with black -and -white photography. They didn't go digital, and so it didn't grow into what it had the potential to be."
Since the Grant County Journal closed, Miller said they have added a full page of coverage in Ephrata on Thursdays, when the Journal used to publish, but the loss is still felt.
"I miss the Journal," Miller said. "We've been covering the city of Ephrata for more than 90 years now, but at the same time, that was their home paper. It's a different feeling when the newspaper from 20 miles away is doing the coverage for you."
At the Miner, Nedved said the newsroom has undergone major technological changes since she started in 2003, trying to keep up with technological advancements.
She said she saw roles once dedicated to proofreading replaced by online tools, and page layouts that were once physically assembled with waxers are now submitted digitally as PDFs.
Still, the paper's mission hasn't wavered — even as news deserts grow.
"I think that people look to the newspaper now for different things than they did when I started, mostly because of the internet. Things like breaking news, sports scores people can get online immediately," Nedved said. "What we're trying to do now is find the deeper story and talk to more people, and talk more about how and what municipalities are doing affects people's daily lives."
Embracing changes
Almost three years ago, the Columbia Basin Herald launched a podcast called "Studio Basin," where reporters recap the week's most important stories.
While some episodes haven't gained much traction, Miller said others have drawn interest from listeners across the state. He said the podcast typically attracts anywhere from a few hundred to just over 700 listeners.
"If we talk about the Moses Lake School District, that's gonna be one that gets listened to a little bit more," Miller said. "If we have (Wiley Allred), the football coach from Royal City, which has a long tradition of state championships, people from all over the state will listen to that one. So that's a good avenue for us to just engage with people a little bit more."
The podcast is just one example of how the Columbia Basin Herald, with a newsroom of five reporters, is embracing technology to expand its reach. Miller also said he's been on the lookout for reporters with digital expertise.
"When I look to hire people coming in, I'm looking for design skills. I need someone who can put together an infographic for their own story. I need someone who can put together a podcast," Miller said.
At the Statesman-Examiner, Cruden said they're also investing in the future by offering unpaid internships to high school and college students interested in journalism. Currently, the paper has five high school reporting interns: two in Colville, one in Kettle Falls, one in Newport and another in Northport.
Depending on the school partnership, students may also earn credit for their work.
"We also had a college intern over the winter, who grew up in Colville and went away to college in Prague in the Czech Republic," Cruden said. "She is going to be graduating this year and talking about coming back and working for us, so it's that organic process of just really growing within community, building a reputation and consistently showing up."
Meanwhile, the Newport Miner continues efforts to boost readership in Pend Oreille County and North Idaho through occasional subscription drives, including sending free copies of the paper for a month to certain mail routes and to people who aren't currently subscribed.
"We send free copies of the newspaper to everybody on certain mail routes, because there's a lot of people out there who don't think about the newspaper anymore, and we believe if they got it in their hands, they would see how beneficial it is and how entertaining it is and interesting it is," Nedved said.
She said in the past couple of weeks that they've been sending out free copies, they've gained a handful of subscribers.
Nedved added that witnessing support for local journalism has helped the paper grow — even bringing back former reporters to the newsroom.
Sophia Mattice-Aldous returned to the Miner as part of the Murrow News Fellowship, a Washington State University program for early-career journalists. Mattice-Aldous splits her time between the Miner and RANGE Media in Spokane covering rural issues, Nedved said.
"That shows people still value community journalism — and that it's necessary for a community to thrive," she said.
Cruden echoed that sentiment, noting that rural communities often have deep-rooted traditions in local events like sports and theater. He believes that when a newspaper and its community invest in each other, the impact can be long-lasting.
"I was just at a ribbon-cutting, and right after, people came up to me and said, 'Thank you so much for bringing back our newspaper,' " Cruden said. "It's a difficult path to walk — regaining trust, especially in today's politically charged environment where civil discourse can be hard to find. But stepping into that space and doing the work — it's something I take seriously."