I just returned from a two-day conference at Ole Miss on local news.
The eight-billion-dollar McArthur Foundation from Chicago funded the event. This foundation, started by insurance magnate John D. McArthur upon his death in 1978, is the 14th largest foundation in the United States.
Their website states: “We work on a few big bets that strive toward transformative change in areas of profound concern, including the existential threats of climate change and nuclear risk, the challenges of criminal justice reform in the U.S. and corruption in Nigeria.”
Saving local journalism has become one of their big bets. McArthur has rallied 60 big U. S. foundations to back Press Forward which is dedicated to reversing the decline in local journalism in the United States.
Press Forward’s website states: “Press Forward is a national movement to strengthen our democracy by revitalizing local news and information. The steady and significant decline in the availability of reliable, fact-based local news across the country is connected to growing threats to democracy, increasing polarization, and the spread of disinformation. At the same time, over a decade of investment in journalism experimentation and transformation have produced new models and solutions that are ready to scale, and a new generation of leaders prepared to reinvent and revitalize the field.
“Press Forward partners are moving from individual grantmaking strategies to a shared vision and coordinated action. Press Forward is a national coalition investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms, close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage, advance public policy that expands access to local news, and to scale the infrastructure the sector needs to thrive.”
So it’s official. My once immensely profitable and vibrant industry of local news and journalism is a charity case. I guess every dark cloud has a silver lining.
The Emmerich family has dedicated three generations to producing local news and quality journalism in Mississippi. Our newspapers typically are the longest serving businesses in the communities we serve, usually exceeding 100 years of continuous operations.
It started when my grandfather, J. Oliver Emmerich, quit his job as a county agent and returned to his hometown of McComb, Mississippi and purchased one of eight weekly newspapers in operation in Pike County at the time.
Imagine that, eight weekly newspapers in McComb in 1925. That’s a good illustration of how things change over time.
The state’s highest award for editorial writing, the J. Oliver Emmerich Award for Editorial Excellence, was named in honor of my grandfather. My father and I have both won it twice. Jack Ryan, publisher of the McComb Enterprise-Journal for decades and still an Emmerich newspapers, has won it twice as well. Tim Kalich, longtime publisher of the Greenwood Commonwealth and successor to my father there, has won the award an unprecedented seven times. Tim writes numerous editorials that appear in the Northside Sun.
J. Oliver had to borrow from the bank to buy the weekly Enterprise. Oliver’s father was born into a wealthy canning family from New Orleans, but had a falling out with his father and left New Orleans to become a conductor on the City of New Orleans.
Oliver borrowed a bunch of money and fathered two children just in time for the Great Depression. His wife Lyda Will encouraged him to default but he refused and struggled for 12 years.
A big World War II army base opened near McComb and Oliver got the contract for supplying sandwiches to the soldiers. He had 100 little old ladies making bologna sandwiches. He made enough money to buy out his competitors, buy a printing press and go daily.
I like to tell people the reason I’m a Mississippi journalist is just based on a huge amount of bologna.
Oliver’s struggles turned into riches as the newspaper industry hit its stride. My father encouraged him to expand but Oliver was too afraid of debt. Once burned twice shy.
It took Oliver 20 years to get up the courage to sign a bank note again, helping my father John Oliver Emmerich Jr. buy the Greenwood Commonwealth in 1973. The Delta was booming then. I was happy to move because it meant I could get my driver’s license one year earlier. I took to Mississippi like a duck to water and got the wonderful experience of being a teenager in the heydey of the Mississippi Delta.
The newspaper industry had 30 more great years and what a blessing to work with my father. I was born with printer’s ink in my blood. I loved journalism and newspapers.
My father died in 1995 and I took over the company. In the year 2000, the new century, the Internet came into being. It’s been a steep ride downward ever since. My wife says I’m the last man standing. I’ve seen the good times and the hard times.
At the Oxford conference, many people spoke about the importance of journalism and local news. It is a key ingredient to a functioning democracy. Now we have vast news deserts across our land. Huge digital monopolies, built on a vast spy apparatus, control the flow of information as never before in our history. We are treading on thin ice.
This is not like horse buggies or vinyl recordings. An informed electorate is a necessity to our republic. Never before have we had so many ways to convey news and so little news to convey. Something must be done. We have half the number of journalists as we did 20 years ago. Local news outlets are closing by the scores. Meanwhile digital algorithms manipulate us and social media damages the brains of our children.
I am very happy the McArthur foundation is trying to help. We have applied for numerous grants. But this is a bandaid. Big Tech must be forced to pay royalties to news providers when our news is on their platforms. Tax credits for journalists must be put in place. Canada has this and journalism has rebounded. But here in Big Tech’s home turf they fight tooth and nail for their dominance.
There is one thing local communities can do: Support your local news provider by subscribing and advertising. Nothing is more important than that. It’s good for your community and it’s good for the future of our country. Without your support, local news by trained journalists will be no more.
