Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Where in the state are you located: Plattsburg, about a half-hour north of Kansas City.
Who owns the newspaper: Steve Tinnen. He’s a Missouri Press Hall of Famer whose family has owned the newspaper for 50 years.
In addition to publishing a newspaper, what other services do you provide: We used to publish a shopper, too, but that business shrank gradually over the years.
Newspaper’s circulation: Around 1,000 weekly.
Number of issues per week/publication days: We publish weekly on Thursday.
Number of full-time and part-time staff: Like most newspapers, our staff has dwindled over the last decade. I’m the lone full-time employee, but we have six part-timers who really serve as the engine of what we do.
Population of the town and county: Plattsburg has around 2,200 residents, while Clinton County has around 21,000 residents. Also in our readership area, Lathrop has approximately 2,200 residents and Gower is close to 1,500.
Is your community growing, declining or holding steady: Strangely, all of the above. Clinton County is split evenly with a dense, commuter-based population to the south, and sparsely-populated farming land to the north. It’s great from a newspaper standpoint; we have a wide swath of issues that we cover, so it’s never dull.
But it sometimes creates an identity crisis for the county as a whole. Do we want to foster the growth coming up from the city, or preserve our agricultural roots? Ultimately, it’s a benefit to the county, it’s taxing entities and the businesses. Clinton County is better off than most rural counties.
Your greatest challenge: Social media. On the advertising side, many businesses overestimate the value in their follower counts. Don’t get me wrong; likes and shares definitely help businesses. Newspapers need to do a better job driving home two key points — our readership is fully engaged and they have disposable income. They fuel the local economy.
When it comes to informing the public, social media gives residents a false sense of being well-informed. They follow the complaint pages, their local school district page, the city page, and they feel like they’re in the know. School districts might post all of their warm-and-fuzzy accomplishments, but when their testing scores come in low, they’re not posting that to Facebook.
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve reported on an issue for months — a looming tax hike or a major bond question at the polls — just for someone to post “Why weren’t we told about this sooner?”
Newspaper’s biggest strength: Firstly, our staff. We’re blessed to have the right people in the right places. We look out for each other, and we’re pulling in the same direction.
Secondly, our communities, they value what we do and give us the foundation to keep doing it. Under the leadership of the Tinnen family, we’ve always put fairness and honesty first, and that’s built a lot of trust and loyalty with readers.
Newspaper’s biggest obstacle to overcome: Doing more with less. I think we’ve done a great job of fulfilling our duty to readers despite having fewer resources than a decade ago. But there’s so much more value we could provide. Thankfully, we’ve grown a lot the last nine months and we’re working toward our goals.
Hobbies/Interests: My dad and I collect antique tractors and implements, specifically J.I. Case and Oliver tractors. A few of them are rare and a couple are from the 1930s. It’s fun to preserve that history and show it publicly. I also hunt and dabble in wildlife photography.
Something unusual about yourself: I once tweeted to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon about the “questionable” methods in which my sister procured her first diary as a kid (let’s just say it was at a 100-percent discount). I thought it might get a laugh or two on Twitter, but he actually read it that night on national television. Thank goodness she has a great sense of humor.
What is your favorite journalism accomplishment: I was named an Outstanding Young Journalist by the MPA in 2015 (which makes me a not-so-young journalist now), and we were honored twice to win the Class 1 Weekly Gold Medal and twice to win the Class 1 Weekly General Excellence Award. It’s great to be recognized by your peers, but what’s more, everyone on our staff was born and raised in Clinton County. We were beyond proud to bring award-winning journalism to our hometowns.
If you weren’t an editor, what do you think you’d be doing: Either an athletic director or sports information director at a Division III university.
