‘News deserts’

My how things have changed in 25 years.
A quarter century ago this month my family and I moved to Aurora from Fremont, thrilled beyond words with the notion that we had found a place to purchase a business and make our home. Butch and Nancy Furse had agreed to sell us the Aurora News-Register, though that well-known “secret” wouldn’t be announced until six months later after the deal was officially done on July 1. So began one of our greatest life adventures.
As we begin a new year I can’t help but notice how much things have changed in that span, especially from a newspaper perspective. Change, as they say, is a constant in today’s world, so rather than complain one had best embrace it and deal with the challenges head on. 
Those challenges have become more formidable in recent years for an industry that has experienced change unlike anything anyone could have imagined. The explosive growth and popularity of social media news platforms changed the game in a relatively short time, so much so that the number of newspapers has been slowly dwindling across our state and nation.
“News deserts,” a new term describing areas that have no remaining local credible and/or comprehensive news coverage, are growing consequently as well. Sadly, that’s happening in some rural areas across Nebraska. 
Just last month, colleagues of mine in Ainsworth announced that they would be closing the newspapers in Ainsworth and Valentine after they had devoted 40-plus years to covering those communities. Fortunately, local buyers were found to keep those papers alive, but many other small towns have not been as fortunate. Think about what that means to a community in terms of not knowing what your school board, city council, county board or other entities making decisions that affect people’s lives are discussing or doing, let alone the coverage of high school athletics and extracurricular activities.
As co-publisher of a weekly newspaper, that frustrates me for obvious reasons, as well as for many that local residents may not consider. The greater concern for me is the sense of community awareness and connectedness on subjects of substance that newspapers have always provided, which is, quite frankly, not a part of or priority in the social media realm.
Take for example coverage of local news. It’s not hard to find photos of various activities on Facebook or your platform of choice, but balanced, in-depth reporting and input from the folks at the front of the room is not what those platforms were designed for. Instead, what you see is someone posting and sharing what they want others to see, typically focused on content that they agree with. There isn’t a lot of depth or detail included, which is not helpful when the issue being discussed is complex and/or has two very different points of view.
People say they want that news and information, but are they willing to pay for it? I’ll cite one example from last year when ANR’s coverage of Aurora City Council proceedings came under fire on the local Facebook page. People wanted to understand what was being discussed and many were posting their views on what they had heard and read, with one poster criticizing the local newspaper for putting information that people wanted and needed to know behind a paywall. In other words, they wanted to read ANR’s coverage, but weren’t willing to spend $1 for a hard copy or $2 for access to that week’s e-edition to get it.
You get what you pay for in most cases, and relying on “free” media coverage is rising as a threat to our form of government. This week’s announcement by Meta that third-party fact-checking is now being replaced with a crowdsourced system called “Community Notes” (See the guest opinion piece below) reflects my concern in spades.
Our commitment to local news has not wavered one iota, but understand that the business model only works if this community continues to support the News-Register. Local news has considerable value, and that has not changed.
-- Kurt Johnson