THE DEATH OF A LOCAL WATCHDOG
May 5, 2020
We in the Oklahoma journalism community are mourning the loss of one of our own this week.
The Edmond Sun - one of the oldest newspapers in the state, and one of the best - closed its doors this past weekend. The staff - including my friend Mark Codner - was laid off, and the Sun has merged with its sister publication, the Norman Transcript. Meaning that two cities located 36 miles apart by car (following the I-35 north and US-77 north route) will now be sharing a single daily newspaper.
The official story, as stated in the Sun’s editorial announcing its own demise, listed the cause of death as declining revenues. I have little doubt there is some truth to that; the past decade or so has seen difficult times for the newspaper industry in general, and the situation has been made worse by financial realities created by the current pandemic.
Indeed, a few days before the Sun wrote “30” on its final edition, another Oklahoma paper - the Duncan Banner - announced that it is slashing the number of days a week that it prints.
And here at the paper where I work, the Johnston County Sentinel, we have responded to the current situation by cutting back on the number of copies we print each week, allowing subscribers outside our immediate area to access our online edition for free in an effort to cut back on postage costs until things start to improve.
But a few people who would appear to be in a position to know have suggested that the Sun’s demise was at least partially brought about by a virus of another kind: corporate greed. If this is true, it is cause for both anger and concern.
Twice in my career I have worked for corporate-owned daily newspapers. Both stints were, to be as diplomatic as is humanly possible, somewhat less than fulfilling. In one instance the situation was so bad that I was not allowed to run news stories about a local criminal case that was being covered by practically every other news agency throughout the state because of concerns that an advertiser would take offense.
In both instances I found myself working for owners whose interest was NOT in keeping the public informed or playing the watchdog role set forth by the First Amendment but, rather, how much money was coming into the coffers so that the owners could keep buying their fancy private airplanes and taking trips to islands with names I still can’t pronounce.
I have written in the past about the importance of local newspapers to the communities they serve. Like the local schools and post offices and certain businesses, the newspaper is part of the lifeblood of the commuity. They help create the community’s very identity.
That’s one reason we fought so hard to get the Sentinel up and running in the first place two years ago.And that’s why I have always been happier working for a “mom-and-pop” operation like the Sentinel than with papers that are corporately owned.
In most cases the corporate owners do not even live in the communities their papers serve; they have little if any understanding of what makes those communities special.
All they care about is the ka-ching.
That might be a fine way to run a retail store or a restaurant, or even a lemonade stand. But it’s a pretty lousy way to run a newspaper as far as I’m concerned.
Look, I’m not naive. I know we’re a business too, and there are certain financial realities that have to be attended to if we want to keep doing our job. I’ve got bills to pay too, after all.
But when a newspaper puts those considerations above their responsibility to the public, that newspaper has lost sight of why it exists in the first place. And the community suffers because of it.
The people of Edmond have lost that vital part of their community. We should all be saddened by that.
If you’re not... well, I just don’t know what else to say.
(Copyright © 2020 by John Allen Small)
Posted by John Allen Small. Posted In : Journalism
John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996).
Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.)
John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something.
In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems.
He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.
