I know what you’re thinking. We screwed up the front page this week!
No, trust me, we didn’t. We intentionally published nothing on the front page to make a statement.
This statement was originally fostered by a committee at the Minnesota Newspaper Association. To be quite frank, at first I wasn’t keen on this idea.
All newspapers in 87 counties in the State of Minnesota were encouraged to participate in this blank front page initiative, and I was openly reluctant. I even lobbied against a blank front page with our newspaper staff.
But, something changed my mindset, and I started to think about what it would be like if there were no local newspapers.
Where would our local residents get their news?
I mean no disrespect when I say that our local TV and radio stations don’t cover every city council, school board, and county government meeting. But, it’s true.
Local newspapers have more reporters covering meetings, events, and human interest stories than most other types of media. And, how we present the news is quite different than TV and radio. Newspapers provide a format that can be shared in print and online, and easily revisited because the printed word has been captured.
And, the majority of credible news content appearing on the Internet is generated by local newspapers. There have been many failed attempts at online only news sources. The most recent and notable was Patch.com. AOL (America Online still exists!) founded Patch.com, which was intended to be a hyper-local online only news source for major cities throughout the United States. At one time, they operated 906 hyper-local news websites with mostly volunteer reporters. If you’ve never heard of Patch.com, that’s one of the reasons they failed. Very few online only news models can sustain without the frequency of readily available traditional media such as TV, radio, and newspapers.
The Fillmore County Journal arriving in your mailbox every week makes your local news consumption easy. You don’t have to pay for it due to the support of local advertisers. And, it has local news relevant to you and the community in which you reside.
Why is local news important?
A few years ago, I wrote a commentary about 843 names and faces that appeared in that one issue of the Fillmore County Journal. That was only one issue. We do this every week.
We publish obituaries at no charge. Our Social Scenes pages are blessed with birth notices, engagement and wedding announcements, military service recognition, anniversaries, and retirement milestones. We cover the sports accomplishments of high school athletes for seven school districts in our coverage area. We provide a forum on our Commentary pages for local residents to have a dialogue about local, regional, national and international issues.
And, along with the aforementioned, we have a stellar news team reporting on what was discussed at government meetings throughout our coverage area. Bravo to Barb Jeffers, Miranda Cox, Eric Leitzen, Annie Lewis, Karen Reisner, Rich Wicks, Hannah Wingert, and Kirsten Zoellner! This team of reporters is responsible for reporting on how money is spent by each of the following government entities:
2017 general fund budgets:
• Canton: $129,314
• Chatfield: $2,318,004
• Fillmore County
Government: $28,021,700
• Fountain: Unavailable by press time
• Harmony: $634,181
• Houston: $564,048
• Lanesboro: $783,248
• Mabel: $749,550
• Ostrander: $180,700
• Peterson: $152,154
• Preston: $2,284,762
• Rushford: $792,700
• Rushford Village: $425,000
• Spring Valley: $1,615,274
• Whalan: $24,898
• Wykoff: $691,934
Total: $39,367,467
2016 school district expenditures:
• Chatfield School District: $8,373,744
• Fillmore Central School
District: $6,483,638
• Houston School District: $20,837,453
• Kingsland School District: $6,145,974
• Lanesboro School District: $3,642,041
• Mabel-Canton School District: $2,845,017
• Rushford-Peterson School
District: $7,078,002
Total: $55,405,869
Our team of reporters has the hefty responsibility of explaining to the public how nearly $100 million of their taxpayer dollars are spent within local governments and schools. And, in general, that multi-million dollar number grows year after year.
If local newspapers didn’t exist, who would report on what was discussed at these government meetings? Furthermore, who would act as a watchdog for how your tax dollars are spent? Most of our residents are way too busy to attend a local government meeting. So, they trust this newspaper will give them an update on what transpired at a meeting where officials make decisions that could impact their lives with taxes, policy changes, ordinances, road construction, bond referendums, and so much more.
And, by in large, local newspapers are the most likely media to raise up a red flag to the community when there is a violation of Open Meeting Law. Local newspapers push for transparency at all costs, citing the Freedom of Information Act when necessary.
Accountability &
Transparency
There have been a few government entities pushing for not publishing legal notices in any newspaper, hoping they will be allowed to only publish their legal notices on their own government website.
There are so many reasons this is a bad idea. One example — try to locate the city budget of any cities listed previously in this commentary. With my recent litmus test, Fillmore County government published their 2017 budget on their website, but only one city had their budget accessible on their website. Citizens need more information accessible at all times. More transparency.
Another reality is that only 72% of Minnesota residents have Internet access. When people have to jump through hoops to access information about their government, that’s a problem.
When we are talking about nearly $100 million of local taxpayer dollars spent in this area, I would think that communication with citizens would be a priority. If there is a date change for a meeting, a notice for bids, or public hearing — just to name a few — these need to be published as legal notices in a local newspaper.
We’ve received phone calls from upset citizens showing up for a local meeting in this area, because the meeting date and time was changed without any notice to the public. Our own reporters have shown up for a meeting that was rescheduled without notice to the newspaper or the public. That’s a really big problem!
And, in case anyone is wondering, there are some local governments and school districts that have not published all of their legal notices in order to save a few bucks. It has been happening. If you are not seeing legal notices for your city or school district in any newspapers, you may want to start asking questions of locally elected officials making those decisions. It’s a matter of transparency.
Public notices in newspapers are the permanent records of what a public body does as well as the notification of what it intends to do. Once it has been printed, there is permanence. Links on government websites can be deleted quickly and without notice.
It’s interesting. Local governments know that newspapers get the message out best. When they want to publicize any issue of concern, they contact the local newspaper.
The more open and accessible government information is, the stronger the trust in what our government does.
The blank front page
The statement made with today’s blank front page was intended to prompt our readers to think about the significance of the content that fills these pages each week.
As the Minnesota Newspaper Association celebrates 150 years, this newspaper joins hundreds of newspaper throughout the State of Minnesota attempting to make a statement of relevance. We serve an important purpose, whether we realize it or not.
Here in Minnesota, local newspapers are the lifeblood of the community.
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