Dear Readers,
Today marks a year since I took on the responsibility of editor for the Roseville Reporter. Helping to build a nonprofit community news site from the ground up has been no small task, but it’s also been a rewarding one. Knowing that the Reporter is helping sustain our community and maintain a public forum for our residents to express themselves has been the ultimate motivator for me and all of us to continue our work.
Have you wondered where all the community newspapers have gone? The 21st century has seen the emergence of the digital age and the resulting mass transition of print news media and their advertisers to online formats. Papers across the country, like our very own Roseville Review, that had sustained themselves for centuries, even through the Great Depression, found they could not weather this storm. Per “The Expanding News Desert” from the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media, more than one in five papers has closed over the past decade and a half. Almost 200 counties in the country have no newspaper at all.
With the mass migration online, only the largest papers have managed to survive, particularly for-profit media companies run by billionaires. UNC states that the very community newspapers that are dying out are the ones that provide the best public service journalism, shed light on local issues, and hold our leaders accountable. Without local papers, we’re lucky to find our communities even mentioned in large metro publications, and often only the most sensational stories get their attention— nothing about day-to-day life in our communities. Not to mention, the content these sites publish are often hidden behind paywalls, and with the bare necessities costing more and more these days, a subscription to the news becomes simply out of reach.
How could Roseville, a first-ring suburb of a major city with its own thriving community, lack this necessity? How could billionaires that possess more wealth than you or I could ever fathom have the best interests of our communities in mind? That’s where the Roseville Reporter comes in.
We are a nonprofit community newspaper funded solely by grants, advertising and generous donations from you, our readers. We are community members with a deep love for Roseville who wish to see it thrive. We report on the issues that directly impact us and fellow residents. We want to show the world what’s unique about Roseville and give its residents a platform to share what’s important to them.
We would not be able to do the work that we do without your support. We have an active matching fund of up to $10,000, which helps your donation go even further towards supporting local journalism. Also, please consider subscribing if you have not already, or forward our newsletter to your friends and family. While subscribing is free for you, local journalism is not free to produce. More exposure means more resources for us to work with to make the Reporter the best it can be!
As much as the digital age has revolutionized how we live, work and communicate, it has made it harder for smaller communities to perform the necessary public service of journalism. Without a source for relevant local news, important community issues go unreported and a sense of unity is lost. Help the Reporter continue its work to restore that unity.
It’s been an honor to serve as editor for such an important organization and I hope you’ll continue to support us in the years to come.
Sincerely,
~Sommer Wagen, Editor
