Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Local newspapers have always embraced their role as a public service, informing readers of community events, supporting charitable causes and providing critical updates in times of emergency.
Despite their efforts, the staff at these newspapers are often doing this work in the face of changing readership trends, including younger generations who don’t want to or see a need to pay for access to local news. A May 2024 Pew Research Center study found young adults said they don’t pay for local news because they are not interested enough in local news topics or because there are other free sources of news.
Further compounding the problem, the survey found that 63 percent of Americans think their local news outlets are doing well financially, compared to 33 thinking local news is not well financially.
A majority of respondents (85 percent) expressed positive feelings about their local news media, despite declining public attention to local news.
So, many newspapers have the support of their community, even if it’s not always the support of the wallets in the community.
A big reason for that positive perception of local news outlets is undoubtedly the ways those businesses give back to the community, either in the form of volunteer man hours, extra promotion of an event or even a straight up cash donation. Sometimes the newspaper focuses its efforts on helping specific groups, such as the elderly or disadvantaged.
Better Newspapers Inc. operates eight newspapers in Missouri, including the Wayne County Journal-Banner in Piedmont. Kim Combs, regional vice president of Better Newspapers in Missouri, said the newspaper chooses projects designed to improve peoples’ way of life.
“We do subscription drives three-to-four times a year and donate a percentage of the subscription money to various charities. We have donated to help fund the mobile food bank, Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry, and a couple of school groups that were needing funds,” Combs said. “We are currently working with the Ministerial Alliance to plan another drive. The need has not been nailed down; we have discussed personal hygiene items and women’s hygiene items or a certain food item they are needing.”
In March, when the area was struck by a tornado, Combs said the Journal-Banner worked with a local church to store and distribute a tractor trailer load of food and supplies from the newspaper’s storage area. “When their volunteers were not available to hand out goods, newspaper workers jumped in to help.”
“My favorite community project was a senior meal program,” Combs said. “The Department of Aging in our area had some leftover funding that had to be used or lost. We worked with them and the local grocery store on the project. The grocery store became our partner because no local restaurant would agree to the project.”
The newspaper opened its offices for people to register and receive vouchers for healthy lunch-time meals at the grocery store, requiring participants to dine-in. The dine-in stipulation had the added bonus of providing social time for those lonely or otherwise had no one in their daily life to talk with.
Combs said the meal project ran for 20 months until funding was exhausted, but much more importantly, several of the community’s lonely seniors became friends with staff at the newspaper. Sometimes people will still drop by to say hi, bring cookies or even ask for advice when they have a problem.
The project also netted Combs the Aging Matters Businessperson of the Year award in 2023. “We don’t do these things for the glory,” she said.
Generational returns
Many ways that local newspapers give back combine civic service with projects that have a lasting impact for generations.
Hannah Spaar, editor of The Odessan, served as Odessa Rotary’s president in 2023-2024 and during her term oversaw construction of a 1-mile lakeside wilderness trail on city-owned property called Rocky Roots Trail. The following year, she sat on the committee to oversee an additional mile-long trail on the property, Raptor Point Trail.
Ruth Ann Hafner, reporter for Focus on Oak Grove (a sister publication to The Odessan), is in her second year as president of the Oak Grove Chamber of Commerce. During her term, she has been instrumental in helping grow the organization to support business development in the city, but Hafner has also worked to revitalize the community’s fall fair, Lickskillet Days, which brings thousands of attendees to the town. The name is a reference to Oak Grove’s original name.
Seasonal events are popular ways for newspapers to bolster local causes, especially when they support the community’s children and schools. The amounts might not seem like a lot, but every bit a newspaper helps an organization raise is that much further their assistance to the community will go.
Take the Howell County News, for example, which hosts an annual fundraiser benefiting Bears for a Better Christmas, an organization in area schools that provides Christmas gifts for underprivileged kids in Willow Springs. Publisher Amanda Mendez said the group’s name draws from Willow Springs’ “Bear City” sobriquet.
“In the past four years, we have raised $5,000 for [Bears for a Better Christmas] with our Drench ’em for a Good Cause booth at our annual fall festival,” Mendez said. “Sometimes, we pit firefighters vs. law enforcement in a competition to see who raises more, and those are the years we have been able to donate $2,000 to the program. The first responders get really into it and competitive.”
And just like many other local businesses, newspapers will make a pledge to support the community, not knowing what the end amount will look like until the books are settled.
From the outset of their purchase of the Cassville Democrat in early 2023, Kyle and Jordan Troutman pondered the different ways they could give back to the community. Early on in their ownership, they decided to pledge 2 percent of advertising sales for every special project to a non-profit relating to the focus of that project, under the moniker of “Back 2 You.”
For example, 2 percent of revenue from the newspaper’s Unsung Heroes section goes to a local police or fire department, while 2 percent of revenue from the Winter Sports tab will go to each school’s athletic programs or booster clubs.
In explaining the move to readers, Kyle Troutman said the 2 percent may not seem like much, but it can add up quickly, especially when some sections have the same beneficiaries. The Democrat runs more than 30 special sections throughout the year, a number he admits sounds high but has also proven a strength for advertisers and important to the newspaper’s continuing business.
The Back 2 You campaign also makes each special section an annual benefit to the community. In a move of transparency, Troutman has told readers the reasoning behind how much is given and what affects the amount the newspaper is able to give beyond the pledged 2 percent each year.
The Cassville and Barry County community is giving us so much, we want to give “Back 2 You,” Troutman told readers at the campaign’s launch in 2023. In total, the newspaper has since awarded $6,231 to 10 community organizations and is always looking for more groups to support.
Whatever your publication and staff do, Missouri Press News wants to celebrate you! Send clippings, articles or even just a short note to Matthew Barba at mbarba@mopress.com.
