'Are we worth support?': Rural Minnesota papers face challenges, community loses

For Center for Rural Policy and Development Vice President of Research Marnie Werner, the the research of rural newspapers in Minnesota involved a lot of conversations.

“I needed to go and talk to people,” she said. “And so I talked to, like the Minnesota Newspaper Association, and basically editors and owners of small newspapers around the state,” she said.

The statistics aren't pretty. The report found in Minnesota between 2000 and 2021, about a quarter of the state’s newspapers closed — 60 percent in Greater Minnesota and 40 percent in the Twin Cities. And even more startling, over the same period the number of people working at newspapers dropped 70 percent.

Werner says a combination of historic shifts in culture and technology have permanently affected newspapers’ ability to make money. There's been the rise of the internet, the loss of classifieds to Craigslist, in addition to seismic shifts in readership and declining subscriptions.

“I should say, this is a national thing. This is not just small, rural newspapers, the newspaper industry worldwide is struggling because of this fundamental change in the business model,” she said.

Need for diverse revenue streams

The report by the Center for Rural Policy and Development says rural newspapers need diverse revenue streams to survive and offers several possibilities: raising subscription rates, going to free distribution, organizing sponsored events or becoming a nonprofit.

But, it warns philanthropic giving in rural areas is low. It also suggests training community members to be reporters and financial backing by government.

One newspaper looking at alternative revenue streams is the Daily Journal in Fergus Falls, Minn.

Publisher Ken Harty is quoted in the report saying that if rural newspapers do nothing to change they will never make it. He points to sponsored features such as Yard of the Week which is selected by the local police chief. He says it helps the paper, and serves the community.

“It's a great program for those guys to communicate with the public,” he said. “So they're out driving around picking out yards, we go take the picture, we move the sign, we sell for that. Now we've got a non-traditional revenue stream. And we can put that online, we can put it in print. But the thing is, is that it's a good community focused revenue initiative for us and creates good engagement.”

Harty says digital is working for the Journal.

“We do have digital revenue, we don't have the levels that we can sustain ourselves on the digital platforms yet. But I will say that the digital advertising we do have is very profitable. So if we can get that to a certain level, we can be sustained by that. But we're not there yet."

In west-central Minnesota digital isn't working for Reed Anfinson. The owner and publisher of three rural newspapers, he's a former president of the National Newspaper Association, and also appears in the report.

"Digital is not going to save the day, at least not anytime soon. Well, I'd say never, it's not going to save the day ever,” he said.

Anfinson, often works seven days a week as reporter, photographer, editor and publisher. He'd like to see legislation passed to help rural newspapers.

“There are dozens of programs and billions of dollars thrown at the farm economy of America,” he said. “Are the community newspapers in each of these small towns worth support? I argue that it should be in the ag bill. That's the best opportunity ahead of us right now. Because it's under discussion.”

Community costs

Anfinson says data shows when community newspapers disappear people pay more attention to national news, causing them to become more polarized and divisive. He says people also vote less, incumbents are re-elected more often, volunteerism goes down and the cost of bonding increases.

“If we have the community newspaper, people are much more likely to think local, and act local, in a harmony that gets things done. If we don't have common knowledge in our communities about what's going on, we can act with common purpose.”

Both Anfinson and Harty agree the new study paints an accurate picture of what's going on in rural newspapers and the challenges they face.

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