Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
When I took over ownership and management of the Glasgow Missourian a year ago, I knew my style was going to be a little different than what you were used to. There was an adjustment period — for you and for me — as we figured each other out.
Not everyone has agreed with every change or every decision along the way, and that’s okay. But over the past year, I’ve also made a lot of new “friends,” built some business relationships I’m incredibly proud of and, most importantly, gotten to know Glasgow and the people who call it home on a much more personal level.
Following the kids at school has probably been one of my favorite parts of this newest adventure. I went from pulling into a ballgame or school event and getting the “Who is she, and why is she here?” look to having kids recognize me — and my camera — almost as soon as I park.
At this point, I’m pretty sure my camera has just as many friends in Glasgow as I do.
It has been quite an adventure getting to know Glasgow, covering its people and events, and documenting a little more of its history every week.
But there has been one change over the past year that I know hasn’t been particularly popular — the cost of a subscription.
I’ve heard the grumbling, and I understand it. Going from $35 a year to $50 or $55 is a noticeable jump, especially when just about everything else in life seems to be going up right along with it.
But here’s the part I don’t think most readers ever have a reason to see: what it actually costs to put that newspaper in your mailbox every week.
Honestly, until I sat down and put a pencil to it myself, even I didn’t realize just how shocking the numbers were.
I took the Sept. 10 issue of the Missourian and stripped away everything except two expenses — printing the newspaper and mailing it to a subscriber.
The answer was $1.04 per copy just for printing and postage.
That’s $1.04 before I turn on a light at the office.
Before someone answers the phone. Before a reporter covers a meeting. Before a camera goes to a ballgame. Before a single page is laid out. Before we pay for software, internet, mileage, equipment, insurance, bookkeeping or any of the other expenses that come with operating a business.
And it certainly doesn’t include the hours spent producing the thing you’re holding in your hands.
It is simply the cost of taking the finished product, putting ink on paper and getting it to your mailbox.
Put that pencil to it for an entire year and the number becomes even more eye-opening.
At $1.04 per issue for 51 issues, printing and postage alone would cost $53.04 per subscriber per year at that rate.
No salaries. No office. No reporting. No photography. No mileage. No equipment. No profit.
Just printing and postage.
Suddenly, that $50 or $55 subscription looks a little different.
It also got me thinking about how much the world around this 160-plus-year-old newspaper has changed.
Twenty-five years ago, the federal minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. Ten years ago, Missouri’s minimum wage was $7.65. Today, it’s $15.
The newspaper business isn’t immune to those changes. Neither is the grocery store, the restaurant down the street, the farmer buying fuel or the family trying to balance the household budget.
Everything costs more.
The challenge for a small-town newspaper is figuring out how to absorb those increases while still producing something local families can afford — and, just as importantly, something worth paying for.
And that challenge isn’t unique to Glasgow.
I’ve watched it play out across Missouri and across the country as more and more small-town newspapers struggle to survive. Here in Howard County, the future of the 186-year-old Fayette Advertiser — one of the oldest newspapers in Missouri and Howard County’s oldest newspaper — has understandably generated a lot of concern.
Covering a community well takes more than putting its name on a masthead or showing up for the biggest events.
I’m already covering five communities spread across two counties. There are days I leave Salisbury, head to Glasgow, swing through Keytesville and Brunswick and end up in Mendon — chasing ballgames, school events, meetings and community activities along the way.
My coverage area isn’t a dot on a map anymore. It’s a pretty good chunk of north-central Missouri.
And no matter how much I might want to be everywhere, I can’t be.
Fayette deserves someone who can be there. Someone who knows the community, learns its people, sits through its meetings, shows up at its schools and ballgames, celebrates its milestones and understands which stories matter to the people who call it home.
Because every time a small-town newspaper disappears, a community loses more than a business. It loses someone whose job is to pay attention.
It loses someone whose job is to show up.
And that brings me back to Glasgow.
For the past year, we’ve been showing up.
We’ve been at the ballgames and school concerts. We’ve covered the celebrations and the storms, the milestones and the retirements, the awards and the fundraisers. We’ve introduced you to people you may not have known and told you a little more about people you’ve known your whole life.
Week after week, those stories have filled these pages.
And while my name may be the one on the ownership line, putting the Missourian together every week is very much a team effort. A huge shout-out goes to Peggy Fuemmeler, Janie Fitzpatrick and Emily Boss, who work hard each week to make sure Glasgow’s stories, people, schools and events make it onto these pages.
We strive to give you something you can’t get from a quick internet search or a social media scroll.
You can find scores, announcements and basic information in a lot of places. But the internet doesn’t know the people behind those names. It doesn’t know why a milestone matters, why a tradition means something to this town or why a seemingly small story deserves to be remembered.
We’re here to tell the stories that matter to Glasgow because we’re here getting to know Glasgow.
Here’s to one year of bringing you the kind of local coverage that only a small-town newspaper can provide.
Melanie Latamondeer is publisher of the Glasgow Missourian and Chariton Marquee. This column was originally published in the Missourian's Oct. 1 edition and is republished here with permission. It has been edited for length and content.
