Rusty Rae: Saving Oregon newspapers one community at a time

About the writer: Rusty Rae is a veteran editor, photojournalist and photo educator. Holder of a bachelor’s degree from Linfield University and MBA from the University of Washington, he first worked for the News-Register out of college. He returned in recent years, serving in sports, photo and other capacities. In addition, he is currently executive editor of the Oregon Public Information Partnership, which is dedicated to preservation of the community newspaper’s traditional informational role in Oregon and counts the News-Register as a key partner.

You might be wondering what all the hubbub is here locally over the News-Register’s Community Partners program, and programs like it now springing up around the state.

Well, times have changed. And as much as people dislike change —- it’s said no one likes change outside of babies with dirty diapers — Oregon newspapers must change, too, if they are going to continue to serve their communities effectively.

The digital age ushered in a cornucopia of tantalizing, almost too-good-to-be-true opportunities. I can still remember coming home from work one day in 1995 to find my teenage son looking at items at the Louvre in Paris, thanks to a primitive computer relying on a 300-baud dialup modem.

It was a wow moment for me. A window to the world had opened.

At the same time, the internet, with all its wonder, also created a great disturbance in the economic factors that enabled newspapers to keep subscription prices low while still carrying out their mission effectively.

When Craigslist arrived, a novel idea at the time, it spelled the decline of classified newspaper advertising — a key local profit center for community newspapers. At the same time, the World Wide Web — an innovative idea serving to bring the world to our desktops, as noted above — usurped commercial advertising, another revenue channel for community newspapers. Businesses built websites, put their wares online and decided, wrongly in my view, that they didn’t need newspaper advertising anymore.

With shrinking revenues, publishers reduced overhead, effectively trying to do more with less, until all too many were forced to simply to close their doors.

Thankfully, the lights have remained on at the News-Register, which is celebrating 150 years of community service this year. But mirroring a national and even international trend, Oregon has experienced the loss of nearly one-quarter of its community newspapers in the last two decades.

What’s more, groups of newspapers serving Central Oregon and the greater Portland area have been absorbed into the growing stable of an ownership based in Mississippi. This has turned them into veritable ghosts of their former selves, as staffs were reduced to meet arbitrary financial constraints and content reduced to a few local stories scattered among mounds of material from other papers in the chain.

Further exacerbating the newspaper balance sheet is the management of the United States Postal Service.

Most community newspapers are delivered via the local mail carrier, whom we appreciate beyond words. But postal rates for newspapers have continued to escalate, while service has often not.

Keep in mind the Postal Service was founded at the inception of the country, when the founding fathers realized it needed informed citizens if it was to survive. At that time, postage was offered to newspapers at a free or reduced rate.

Even worse are communities finding themselves marooned in news deserts — expanses totally devoid of local newspapers. Citizens are left to wend their way through a myriad of so-called news sites, where opinion is often promoted as fact, with little or no ethical understanding of the concept of balanced reporting.

Data shows communities lacking a local newspaper are more partisan, vote less reliably and suffer less effective government, due to the lack of a watchdog newspaper.

Perhaps even worse is the effect the so-called World Wide Web has had on communities. It has made many things easier, such as paying bills, ordering goods or getting a doctor’s appointment, but has also kept us siloed at our keyboards rather than out participating actively with our neighbors.

That kind of unintended consequence is not only disrupting community newspapers, but also communities themselves.

Healthy newspapers and healthy communities are not a luxury. The two are joined at the hip when it comes to fostering trust, accountability and problem-solving by engaged citizens.

A community without a newspaper is like a ship without a rudder, drifting aimlessly from one crisis to another. Local newspapers help their communities build strength and resilience.

Today, across the United States — and for the most part, across the world — the importance of a local newspaper looms greater than ever.

The old way of funding a newspaper — classified ads, commercial ads and readily affordable subscription rates — has gone the way of the manual typewriter. But the new century has brought a myriad of new concepts to the challenge as well.

Communities thrive on connection. That’s what the Oregon Public Information Partnership is all about, and the News-Register’s Community Partners Program represents a prime example of what it’s trying to foster around the state.

It’s really pretty simple. It involves offering readers multiple ways to engage and support the mission.

● Subscribe: The News-Register offers two online editions, appearing Monday and Wednesday, and one print edition, appearing Friday. Subscriptions cover both print and online.

● Engage: Submit letters to the editor or, with a subscription, earn the right to append comments to online versions of local news stories.

● Join the Press Club. This gets you additional benefits, including discounts and offers from our business partners, an ad credit for a local nonprofit, a three-month gift subscription for a friend, a free “happy ad” and access to quarterly press club events.

● Become a business partner: This provides additional exposure for a business, along with the advantage of special advertising rates.

● Donate to the practice of civic journalism: You get the opportunity to help the paper continue bringing you the news of the day by making a tax-deductible donation.

By helping the News-Register stay strong you help build an accountable community serving all citizens. And it can be duplicated in communities across the nation — even around the world.

Rusty Rae is a veteran editor, photojournalist and photo educator. Holder of a bachelor’s degree from Linfield University and MBA from the University of Washington, he first worked for the News-Register out of college. He returned in recent years, serving in sports, photo and other capacities. In addition, he is currently serving as executive editor of the Oregon Public Information Partnership, which is dedicated to preservation of the community newspaper’s traditional informational role in Oregon and counts the News-Register as a key partner.