McMinnville's Yamhill Valley News-Register, an authentic, local newspaper with real local news[/caption]Carol Forsloff---While folks complain that American jobs are being taken by people from other countries, it might be interesting to note that it isn't just call centers and travel operations but local newspapers as well.
Most newspapers, like the Yamhill Valley News-Register, take pride in offering local folks the news they want to hear most, and that's about their friends and neighbors, local politics and important news they can use as well. They look for who got married or engaged, who recently died, who was promoted and the scores of the latest football game. Good local newspapers offer people information on what is going on around them that they might not know from their own observations or experiences, as they relate the local history that becomes part of the archives of the town.
The Yamhill Valley News-Register has been part of McMinnville since 1866, a family operation that is handed down from one generation to the next. That born-and-bred consciousness means news that is made real by people who live in the town and care about it. These are some of the headlines: "Planners reject Amity winery application", "Grande Ronde Tribal Council welcomes two newcomers," and "More than 16,000 start public schools "
Online newspapers can be just as legitimate and just as local as any other, and many that have centralized operations really do rely on local writers in a town to produce news about local events. And folks don't need to be professional journalists but simply good writers who care about their towns and can manage the time to do the kind of work a local newspaper would produce, specific to an event or activity that is observed and reported first hand. One of those organizations is Patch that has writers from all over the United States who contribute local news from their areas.
But what about some of the online newspapers that purport to be local as well?
Mrufreesboro News Wire is one of those daily newspapers that reflects material that is largely advertising, information that is generic and shared across a number of newspapers in a cut-and-paste operation, with some folks legitimately writing that information and others cutting and pasting and deciding what stays and what goes. And some of these individuals are from countries in regions many Americans might question because of international political concerns.
What are some of the stories? They include information in articles about making a future and success with a fences land company (not in a Michigan town the paper is supposed to cover by its representative headline), or mountain biking challenging both the mental and the physical. Any local news about the latest business in town, an interview with the head of the Chamber of Commerce about preparations for the upcoming holidays or the sheriff about an auto accident just outside of town? Hardly a glimpse of the local scene. What most of these newspapers have instead are the canned articles cut and pasted across a wide number of them, containing mostly advertorials and announcements of local events that can be gleaned from the website of most small towns and cities. Similar online "local" news sources areircnewsonline.com, elkolocalnews.com, and beckleylocalnews.com
Most newspapers, online and in print, include advertorials, which are articles of information that are sponsored by related businesses or organizations who pay for this form of advertising that benefits both the newspaper and the advertiser, as it is often a less expensive way to keep a newspaper in business. But what if the local people knew the cut-and-paste operation was the bulk of the content and the editor someone from Pakistan, India or Libya?
So next time you read the local online newspaper, especially if you pay a subscription fee, which most of these newspapers don't use, read through the articles carefully and sort the links, the names of the writers and observe whether most of the content is about your local town or city or some generic article simply sandwiched into something that looks like a newspaper but doesn't mirror the content of the local press.
