With the rise of the internet and, faster, more expensive technology, the world of the print newspaper seems to be drifting away. Where small communities all over the country once supported daily newspapers, now large mega-media newspapers are taking their place. For example, one can get a copy of the Wall Street Journal every day in Moapa Valley; a newspaper published over 2000 miles away.
The days of even the big city print newspapers seem to be numbered as well. The internet is quickly making the need for a printed product obsolete. If one wanted to see the direction that printed news media is heading, he/she could go on-line and take a look at the “Drudge Report.”
The “Drudge Report” is a web site put together buy Matt Drudge; a man without an Ivy League diploma in journalism or a Rhodes scholarship. In fact he did not go to college at all. In 1996 Drudge put together a web site with news links that he sent primarily to his friends. This web site now contains links to hundreds of newspaper, television, and columnist’s around the world. If you want to read the “London Times,” it is right there, as is the “Washington Post,” Russia’s “Pravda”, and even “Xinhua,” an English paper out of China.
While this instant world wide web of content makes global news more accessible than it has ever been, it still leaves a considerable gap. News on such a wide-ranging scale is bound to miss the local events and daily lives of the average small town and its dwellers. Thus, despite the trend toward mega-media outlets producing online global content, the small town weekly print paper flourishes all over the country. This can be seen by logging in to a website like smalltownpapers.com. On this site, a person can read over 300 different newspapers from small communities across the nation. One can find out what was printed in little newspapers from towns like Cuba, Missouri; Greenville, Georgia; Big Timber, Montana; and even Moapa Valley, Nevada.
Each of these publications is presented on this website in a medium that is very much tied to its printed-page roots. Absent is the glitz, glamour and high-speed technology of the mega-media. In its place is simple coverage of small-town America and its people.
The fact thus remains that despite their modern-day sophistication, people still like to read a paper that deals with the struggles, triumphs, heartbreaks and celebrations of their own community. People have a need to recognize the important life events of their neighbors, friends and families by having these things chronicled in their hometown community newspaper. It is also evident, at least to us in the Progress office, that small-town folks still like collect and clip these news items out of a real newspaper. Thus, it seems, the printed small-town weekly will still be around for some time; perhaps even for a some time after all the big city papers have all gone digital only.
The Progress is, nevertheless looking ahead to join the electronic world. Even now we are working at bringing news of the Moapa Valley and its residents to a world wide audience through the internet. Then, when a big story happens in Moapa Valley and you happen to be visiting family in Dubai, you can hop onto the Drudge Report, click on the link to the Progress, that will most certainly be there; and take comfort in reading all about what is going on in your hometown a world away.
