What we’re doing here at The Eudora Times matters.
So much so that 100 people from around the country are tuning in next week to learn more about how to use the same model for community news elsewhere.
I’m hosting an event called News Desert U for journalism professors to get advice on how universities can better serve communities that lack local news. The event is at KU but is being catered by several Eudora businesses to give them a chance to shine.
The event’s focus is on a troubling pattern called news deserts, a geographic area or populations lacking in local news coverage.
Noted researcher Penny Abernathy has found that over 2,000 daily and weekly newspapers have closed since 2005.
This matters for so many reasons. Research has found repeatedly that significant problems arise when a community no longer has a newspaper.
Not only are there serious implications for democracy and increased corruption when reporters aren’t there to cover government, but community cohesion also splinters. A newspaper is a centralized, unifying force in preserving a community’s history and informing its residents on what is happening where they live.
There isn’t enough space here to get into all of the factors leading to newsroom closures. A key one includes corporate greed by major companies more interested in raking in shareholder profits than caring about journalism and communities.
The newspaper industry continuing to use a business model created in 1833 is also a huge problem. It is simply no longer realistic for newspapers to only charge $1 a week for news in 2022.
Like the hardware store, grocery store and local accountant, we are a business that needs to pay professionals to do their jobs.
With our model at The Eudora Times, college students get exceptional experience learning how to cover communities while communities get local news in return. There is tremendous potential to grow this model across the nation, which is what this News Desert U conference is all about.
For over three years now, KU journalism students and I have worked hard with minimal funding to provide local news for Eudora. We’ve received a significant amount of attention for this, which will only grow in the weeks to come as outside media cover this event.
What we’re doing may seem pretty simple, but it’s anything but. We’ve attracted attention from Hollywood and now from Google interested in what we are doing. The vice president for news at Google is meeting with me later this month.
But we also need all of you to play a role in this as well.
Our reporters go to school full time, work part-time jobs for 20-30 hours a week and report for Eudora in their free time. We simply need your help and donations to be able to stay open so the community doesn’t lose local news again.
Eudora is a shining beacon in demonstrating how local news can continue to survive into the future. Please help support that. Donations can be made at this link.
