Rural Georgia daily closes, increasing number of news-desert counties in the state to 29 - Entrepreneur Generations

News deserts in the U.S. University of North Carolina map;
click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

The 105-year-old Waycross Journal-Herald in southeastern Georgia published its last issue on Sept. 30. In the announcement on its website, editor Jack Williams III attributed the decision to reduced print subscriptions and ad revenue because of the encroachment of the internet and other news sources. The Williams family has owned the daily since 1916.

Publisher Roger Williams (the editor's brother) said it was a difficult decision, but that revenue fell during the recession and hasn't fully recovered since. They tried to sell the paper twice but both deals fell through. To keep the paper going, he said, would have required the family and other stockholders to use their personal funds. "Williams said he regrets it for everyone, but at 71 he couldn’t risk his personal finances in hopes things would somehow turn around," Terry Dickson reports for The Brunswick News in southern Georgia.

Waycross in Ware County
(Wikipedia map)

The Journal-Herald's closure adds to the significant number of counties with no newspaper in the state. Georgia now has 29 news-desert counties, the highest number of any state, according to University of North Carolina journalism professor Penny Abernathy's research. Only Texas comes close with 22 news-desert counties.

Not only does the Journal-Herald's closure leave Ware County residents without a local paper, but it also poses a problem for government officials who need a place to publish legal ads for everything from foreclosures to public hearings. In some cases, legal action cannot be taken until an ad is published, Dickson reports. 

The prospect of paid legal ads could encourage someone to open a weekly paper, which sometimes happens after a daily closes, but there has been no word yet on any such plans. 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2nypSZJ Rural Georgia daily closes, increasing number of news-desert counties in the state to 29 - Entrepreneur Generations

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