9 local papers closing after over 150 years, expanding the suburban news desert

CATHY WURZER: The local news landscape is shrinking. Tomorrow, the Chaska Herald, Chanhassen Villager, and Jordan Independent newspapers will print final editions. Saturday, the Shakopee Valley News, Prior Lake American, Savage Pacer, and Southwest News will shutter.

The group of papers encompasses Southwest News Media. Sister publications in Hutchinson and Litchfield will also shut down. The owners of the papers were bought in 2020 by Denver-based investment firm Alden Global Capital, which still owns the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Now, the closings of these smaller papers creates what's known as a news desert. Research by Northwestern University finds that suburbs around the country have seen some of the most dramatic losses of newspapers in recent years. Joining us to talk about the impact of these publications shutting down is Amanda McKnight. Amanda was a reporter at the Shakopee Valley News for six years and is currently the communications manager for the city of Shakopee. Amanda, welcome to the program.

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Thanks, Cathy. Happy to be here.

CATHY WURZER: I know you've been out of the news business for a little bit here, but you worked at Shakopee Valley News for six years. And I know you've got probably a soft spot in your heart for that newspaper. What does it feel like to be used to be losing a source like this?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: It's absolutely heartbreaking. And I feel that way any time I hear of a newspaper shutting down, but of course, this one hits much closer to home. The Shakopee Valley News has been around for more than 160 years, and so to see something with that much longevity just crumble is incredibly disappointing.

CATHY WURZER: What was the newsroom like at the time when you were there?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Well, it was fun, that's for sure. [LAUGHS] But it was sparse. There was about one reporter dedicated to each of the communities, and then we shared editors. So I was the reporter covering Shakopee for much of my time there. And then I had an editor who was able to contribute occasionally, but she also edited other newspapers. And so her time was pretty limited in terms of bandwidth.

CATHY WURZER: So you were working at the paper before Alden bought it.

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Yes, I left about a year before that happened.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So Shakopee, I mean, obviously, you know the Shakopee is a fairly good-sized area, you know? What do you think that part of the Twin Cities is losing by having the Shakopee Valley News go under?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Well, I mean, it's going to leave such a huge hole in the community. We're a community of almost 50,000 people, which is not small, especially to somebody like me who grew up in a town of 2,000.

And so, there's news every single day. There are things that are happening, whether it's with the city government or the school board or just around town. And people need a dedicated space to go to get that news, because now they'll have to hop around from the school district to the city to the county, and there won't be one central location where they can find everything.

CATHY WURZER: And we should say, too, during your time as a reporter, you broke the story about the Shakopee School's former superintendent, who, if I recall this story, I mean, charged nearly $75,000 to district credit cards for personal expenses. So that was a big story. And now that this paper is gone and the other papers in those local communities are gone, do you worry about accountability in local school districts and local government?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: I definitely worry about accountability, you know? And I like to think that after going through something like that, Shakopee is more on guard in general. And different areas of government are thinking about that when they hire people, but there's never a guarantee. And so, I wish that we still had that accountability available to us.

And even working in city government, I've had some friends joke like, oh, you must be relieved. And it's like, no, not at all. This is bad. [LAUGHS] It's bad for transparency. It's bad for-- there have been studies that say in towns that lose their newspaper that's dedicated solely to that community, their property taxes go up a few percentage points because they don't have that accountability anymore.

And so, I'm, of course, hoping that doesn't happen in Shakopee or Prior Lake or any of these other communities, but it's something to think about as we move forward. And I hope that eventually something comes to fill that hole.

CATHY WURZER: But you know what is really disheartening, and maybe you've run into this when even you were on the street, Amanda, is, kind of this public apathy, like, eh, OK. Well, so another paper went down. Whatever. No one's reading papers anyway. What do you think about that? And how do you battle something like that?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Ugh, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? [LAUGHS]

CATHY WURZER: Yeah.

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: I'm not sure how to battle that, but of course, that is also disappointing because it's like, OK, you go on these Facebook groups. Well, where do you think some of those people got their information? From a newspaper. Not everybody is watching city council agendas and reading these 100-page packets of information. It's available, but that's what reporters did so that they could just tell the community what's up without the community having to do the legwork.

And so, it's frustrating when I see people apathetic about it. I do think that some of them will start to see the impact eventually. Some of them, though, are on the fake news train, and I think that has already left the station, unfortunately.

CATHY WURZER: Mm-hmm. You were wondering about what might fill the vacuum. I had a conversation with an individual who's trying to get a nonprofit model started in Woodbury, a nonprofit news model started in Woodbury. And I'm wondering, do you think that idea has legs in your part of the metro area?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: I definitely think so. I mean, if you look just north of us across the river in Eden Prairie, they had something similar start up. And actually, I believe the person who started it, Mark Weber, he used to work for Southwest News Media, way back when I first started there. And so he's gathered up a few individuals, and they've created a fairly successful Eden Prairie nonprofit publication.

And I think that we've seen other places do this as well. If I remember correctly, I think the Minnesota Reformer started out like that. And so I think that is possible. It's just a matter of finding people who are willing to do that because who has the time, if they're working full-time, and who has the means to just quit their job and start an online newspaper? If I had the means, I might have already done it.

[LAUGHTER]

CATHY WURZER: Amanda, as the communications manager for Shakopee, I don't know-- do you see your job-- will you or the city be doing anything differently to help maybe get out more accurate news and information to residents?

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Well, that is a concern for me, of course. We have yet to have any formal conversations about that at City Hall because I think right now, the immediate concern is for us to figure out how we're going to meet our statutory posting requirements for public notices.

But eventually, I'm hoping to have some conversations about our overall communication strategy, and do we need to shift that a little bit? We already put out some news and information, of course. We've got our quarterly magazine newsletter, and we put stuff on our website, but it just seems like there needs to be more of that now, you know?

Instead of just having a project web page that folks can go to, we need to have a story on our homepage leading people to the project page so that they know where to find this stuff, and they can remain informed, at least with city government happenings.

CATHY WURZER: Well, Amanda, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Best of luck, too.

AMANDA MCKNIGHT: Thank you so much, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Amanda McKnight is the communications manager for the city of Shakopee and was a reporter at the Shakopee Valley News, which will be ceasing publication on Saturday.