Homer is a fishing and tourism town of about 6,000 people at the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s more politically diverse than most cities in Alaska, with a strong liberal side, an equally strong conservative side, and some who just want to tend their gardens, smoke their fish, hope the Safeway is stocked and that they have regular air service to Anchorage. Unfortunately, Homer last week was dumped and lumped into the nationwide fight over freedom of the press, waged by conservatives who don’t like or trust or respect the news media. The weekly Homer News is the latest victim, and not just the paper — newsroom staff lost their jobs and the community could lose its locally written newspaper over the resulting uproar. Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance, who is proudly a religious conservative, objected to the newspaper’s reporting of a vigil held in Homer to honor national conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in Utah last month. Vance thought the reporting was biased against Kirk and his cause. But rather than call the reporter or editor, rather than protest in front of the office, she wrote to the out-of-state owner — on her official state legislative letterhead, which is entirely inappropriate — urging them “to take immediate corrective action.” She added, with the state seal at the top of the letter, “The future credibility of the Homer News, and its advertising base, depends on it.” The publisher, based in Everett, Washington, and owned by another company based in Alabama, immediately pulled the news story off the website, never talked with the reporter and editor to get their side (they later resigned), obligingly changed what the legislator did not like in the story, and then reposted the story on the websites for the Homer News and (Kenai) Peninsula Clarion, which it also owns. Of course, publishers can run a newspaper to their liking. They own it and make the decisions. But publicly trashing the work of a local reporter and editor after one legislator proclaimed that the newspaper “does NOT represent my community” ignores two important facts. First, there are many communities in every town, and a newspaper’s job is to write for all of them, not just Rep. Vance’s “community.” Second, out-of-state ownership is a lousy way to run a local newspaper. Thankfully, the newspapers in Ketchikan, Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, Haines, Anchorage and Nome are owned, operated and staffed by people who actually walk the streets of the town. Decisions made hundreds or thousands of miles away are too often wrong and don’t serve any community well. Coincidentally, it’s National Newspaper Week Oct. 5-11. The bumper sticker this year is “Embracing Local Journalism.”
Out-of-state ownership bad for community newspapers
Homer is a fishing and tourism town of about 6,000 people at the southern end of the
Kenai Peninsula. It’s more politically diverse than most cities in Alaska, with a strong
liberal side, an equally strong conservative side, and some who just want to tend their
gardens, smoke their fish, hope the Safeway is stocked and that they have regular air
service to Anchorage.
Unfortunately, Homer last week was dumped and lumped into the nationwide fight
over freedom of the press, waged by conservatives who don’t like or trust or respect the
news media.
The weekly Homer News is the latest victim, and not just the paper — newsroom staff
lost their jobs and the community could lose its locally written newspaper over the
resulting uproar.
Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance, who is proudly a religious conservative,
objected to the newspaper’s reporting of a vigil held in Homer to honor national
conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in Utah last month. Vance thought
the reporting was biased against Kirk and his cause.
But rather than call the reporter or editor, rather than protest in front of the office, she
wrote to the out-of-state owner — on her official state legislative letterhead, which is
entirely inappropriate — urging them “to take immediate corrective action.” She added,
with the state seal at the top of the letter, “The future credibility of the Homer News, and
its advertising base, depends on it.”
The publisher, based in Everett, Washington, and owned by another company based
in Alabama, immediately pulled the news story off the website, never talked with the
reporter and editor to get their side (they later resigned), obligingly changed what the
legislator did not like in the story, and then reposted the story on the websites for the
Homer News and (Kenai) Peninsula Clarion, which it also owns.
Of course, publishers can run a newspaper to their liking. They own it and make the
decisions. But publicly trashing the work of a local reporter and editor after one
legislator proclaimed that the newspaper “does NOT represent my community” ignores
two important facts.
First, there are many communities in every town, and a newspaper’s job is to write for
all of them, not just Rep. Vance’s “community.”
Second, out-of-state ownership is a lousy way to run a local newspaper. Thankfully,
the newspapers in Ketchikan, Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, Haines, Anchorage and
Nome are owned, operated and staffed by people who actually walk the streets of the
town. Decisions made hundreds or thousands of miles away are too often wrong and
don’t serve any community well.
Coincidentally, it’s National Newspaper Week Oct. 5-11. The bumper sticker this year
is “Embracing Local Journalism.”