Give thanks to the people who keep our newspapers working

They don’t do it because they enjoy being stretched so thin. They do it because they care. They care about their communities and the people who live in them. They know that if they don’t tell those stories, there may not be anyone else who will.”

Bryan Chester, 2026 MPA President

In October, I channeled the spirit of Halloween (the actual spirit, not the pop-up shop) to run down a list of things that scare me and threaten our industry. In keeping with that theme, it seems only fair that my November column focus on the things we have to be thankful for.

There is certainly no shortage of challenges facing newspapers. We could spend all day talking about declining revenue, shrinking staffs and the uncertainty surrounding the future of print. But for this month, I want to focus on the people who remind me why this work still matters.

First and foremost, I am thankful for our readers. They are the lifeblood of our business and our communities. Newspaper subscribers tend to be civic-minded people who care about what happens in their towns and what those towns will look like in the future.

They value the depth of coverage and perspective newspapers bring at a time when quick video hits and soundbites dominate so much of the digital space. They understand that keeping people informed about their communities takes time, effort and resources, and they continue to support that work.

I am also thankful for the people who put out our newspapers. Newspaper staffs have been reduced for years, with fewer people taking on more responsibilities while still working to produce quality local journalism.

In my role at the Columbia Missourian, I regularly travel around the state with groups of students to visit newspaper publishers. I have seen firsthand what it takes to put out a paper with a staff of two, or sometimes one. Single editors managing multiple community weeklies. One reporter covering more ground than seems possible. Ad reps selling territories that once had several people working them.

They don’t do it because they enjoy being stretched so thin. They do it because they care. They care about their communities and the people who live in them. They know that if they don’t tell those stories, there may not be anyone else who will. That kind of dedication deserves to be recognized, especially when the work gets harder and the resources get tighter.

Finally, I am thankful for our students. Young people continue to choose journalism, knowing full well the headwinds our industry faces. They show up ready to learn, take on big projects and challenge the way things have always been done.

They question assumptions, experiment with new products and bring ideas that might not occur to those of us who have been around a while.

They aren’t oblivious to the challenges. They see them just as clearly as the rest of us. But they also see value in what we do and want to be part of figuring out what comes next. Every semester, a new group of reporters comes through the Missourian, and it’s hard not to feed off their energy. They remind me that the work matters, even as the ways we deliver it continue to change.

In my work with the Novak Leadership Institute, we talk a lot about gratitude and recognition. Good leaders understand that people want to contribute and that it’s their job to help them do that. They also understand the importance of recognizing those contributions. It’s easy to get caught up in everything that needs fixing and forget to acknowledge the people who are helping move things forward.

I know our industry has plenty that needs fixing. I’ll get back to some of that next month. But as we head into Thanksgiving, I think it’s worth taking a moment to recognize the readers who support us, the newspaper staffs who keep showing up and the students who want to carry this work forward. It turns out we have a lot to be thankful for.