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Is any newspaper better than a news desert? This owner says yes — what do you think?
“My heart’s in the right place.”
Earlier this month, Sarah published this story: “National Trust for Local News sells 21 newspapers to a company with a history of gutting local news outlets.” After the story ran, the owner of that company got in touch with her to elaborate on his side of the story. Sarah writes:
[Steve] Strickbine believes that local newspapers are worth saving, even if they’re no longer able to act as watchdogs or sustain a full newsroom. He is committed to a free, advertising-supported business model. You may not agree with Strickbine’s vision for local news. I do not. But I’ve never interviewed a newspaper owner so willing to defend his record and speak as plainly about what keeping the lights on actually looks like in many local communities.
When we ran “This owner thinks newspapers are better off diminished than dead,” we asked readers to weigh in.
Some respondents were skeptical, saying no thanks to the decimated paper even if nothing would exist in its absence.
Others were sympathetic, and appreciated that Strickbine wasn’t portrayed as “villainous.” One rural newspaper owner noted that he’s maintaining a paper in a county that doesn’t even have a grocery store, and wished Strickbine luck.
Have thoughts? Live someplace where the local newspaper is a shadow of its former self, but alive? Let us know by replying to this email.
— Laura Hazard Owen
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“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission report harnesses ‘gold-standard’ science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions.
Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all.”
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