Russell Steven Powell

WHERE EVERYTHING MEETS, acrylic on canvas, 20×16

I AM A HYPOCRITE. My hope in acknowledging it in a public place is that I can encourage others to recommit to local journalism. Wherever we live, we owe it to ourselves.

My roots are in local news. My first newspaper job was as a stringer for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. For $50 a week I would attend public meetings, take notes and afterward call them in to a staff reporter, who would edit and publish them with his byline in the next morning’s paper. Imperfect as this was, it created a sense of transparency and accountability in our public officials, from the selectboard to the school committee to the conservation commission.

From here, it was on to a small chain of weeklies, first as a reporter for the Spencer New Leader, then as editor of the Auburn News. As the New Leader correspondent for the small town of Brookfield, Mass. (1980 pop. 2,400), I never had trouble finding enough news of interest to fill two pages. 

The Auburn News was the town’s only newspaper, providing much more in-depth local coverage than the regional Telegram & Gazette, including classified ads and high school sports. During my tenure as editor, reporter Lois Brynes won a regional award from the EPA for uncovering a toxic oil spill that was eventually cleaned up.  

My last newspaper job was more than 40 years ago, as features editor for the daily Valley News in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, covering arts and culture in the Connecticut River’s “upper valley” around Hanover. 

But newspapers have followed me wherever I go. I have subscribed to the Northampton Daily Hampshire Gazette since moving to western Massachusetts in 1982. My magazine New England Watershed (2005-2007) was an attempt to link the disparate communities along the length of the Connecticut River.

For five years I delivered Sunday newspapers to residents in Amherst and Belchertown, and more recently, I delivered copies of the Greenfield Recorder to customers who didn’t receive their regular newspaper. I’d like to think of myself as a champion of local journalism!

And yet …

Since the digital age, I have chosen the cheap way out, paying the Gazette and Springfield Republican as little as possible for online editions rather than the full amount for paper subscriptions. I’ve paid the same low rate for local news that I pay for digital subscriptions to national publications like the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post.

I have done this though it’s a well-known fact that in our digital era, local newspapers continue to struggle to fund essential news about their communities. When I moved here, Holyoke had its own daily newspaper, the Transcript, and the Gazette had a full-time reporter devoted to education. While those days are long gone, if our local news outlets are to do their jobs effectively, they need all of the financial support they can get — even if it doesn’t mean getting a paper copy. 

There is plenty to criticize about local newspapers. They continue to shrink in size. The economic model of small-town papers means that the reading public is continually subjected to inexperienced reporters and editors, who move on to bigger outlets once they learn their trade.

I’ve long felt that the best strategy for local newspapers is to dispense with national and international news and put the resources devoted to syndications into local reporting. It is the one — and only — thing local newspapers can do best. As it stands, too much existing coverage is reactive rather than proactive, failing to get at the heart of what makes our communities special.

I’ve heard some people say that they don’t feel a special obligation to our newspapers since they are for-profit businesses rather than public television or public radio. But this argument ignores the personal investment we all have in knowing what is going on in our communities. All our local media deserve our support.  

During my time as a member of Hatfield’s Community Preservation Act committee, a proposal came from the owners of the Old Mill Inn to replace the siding along the historic building. Cannonballs and rifles were once made there; it has also been the home of an antique store and the offices of the Valley Advocate. 

Several members expressed an unwillingness to support the request, not on its merits but because the award would go to a private owner, until others and I pointed out that there had been three owners of the iconic property in just the previous 20 years. The mill’s value to townspeople transcends individual ownership. A visual landmark as well as a historic structure, the Civil War-era building is a major part of Hatfield’s identity. To let it go would negatively impact everyone in town, not just the property owners. 

One can apply this way of thinking to any number of local businesses, from our farms to bookstores. It equally applies to the news. The local paper both champions and critiques the people and businesses that comprise our communities, with our unique natural landscape and its defining rivers, lakes, and mountains. It is a public watchdog, a tangible symbol of civic pride, and a permanent record of our times.

The people and businesses that provide this essential service deserve our support — not because they might make money at it, but because it is in our collective best interest. I’ve resubscribed to paper editions of the Gazette and Republican. It’s a small investment in my community. I hope you will consider investing in yours, too.