Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Communities facing the loss of their newspaper may want to consider the cooperative model of ownership, where the paper is owned collectively by a group of stakeholders.
When Sheridan, Missouri, lost its newspaper, the Quad River News, in 2007, the community stepped forward to start a new one. About 30 people, each pledging $100, helped establish the Sheridan Express later that year.
Grant City attorney Jerry Drake, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru in 1964-66 organizing cooperatives, led the effort in Sheridan. A former three-term state representative, he drafted all the necessary documents.
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan approved the formation of the Sheridan Express Newspaper Cooperative on Dec. 3, 2007. She even sent a handwritten note to Drake, “I commend your effort to find new ways to give voice to our common democratic ideals.”
Jesse Stark, 53, has served as the editor and publisher of the Express since day one. His father, Joe, started the Quad River News in 1983.
“It’s the only thing I know how to do,” says Jesse Stark, a 2005 graduate of Northwest Missouri State University. The Express operates out of his home.
The cooperative’s five-member board is supposed to meet monthly, but doesn’t always manage that – especially in the winter. A new board will be elected in April.
“We set Jesse’s salary,” Drake said. “He gets everything that comes in. He works as an independent contractor.”
Abutting the Iowa border, Worth County is not only the smallest county by area (267 square miles) but also the least populated county in Missouri, with 1,973 residents according to the 2020 census. Sheridan has a population of only 185.
Worth County is now a one-newspaper county, with the Feb. 26 closing of the Grant City Times Tribune. The Maryville Forum, in Nodaway County, will continue to cover some news and sports in Worth County.
The Express has a circulation just slightly north of 400. That includes 30 to 40 copies sold weekly at newsstands in nine locations.
“We have enough advertising to keep the doors open,” Stark said. “We also have some sponsors for our sports coverage.”
The Express is printed every Wednesday at The Daily Freeman Journal in Webster City, Iowa, 175 miles away. Stark picks it up 48 miles away, in Creston, Iowa.
Stark has never attended Missouri Press Association’s Annual Convention, but he once went to a Northwest Missouri Press Association regional meeting where he remembers meeting former MPA executive director Mark Maassen.
MPA member newspapers come in all sizes, formats, and circulations. I feel fortunate that Worth County has such a dedicated newspaperman as Jesse Stark to prevent a news desert from occurring in the state’s smallest county.
