Local Business

What Happens to Communities Without a Newspaper?

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In a recent article by Jessica Garrison in the LAist called “This California city lost its daily newspapers. It faces a crisis over what comes next,” she recounts what happened to Richmond, California, when they lost their newspaper.
Richmond City Councilmember Cesar Zepeda has been trying to bring a supermarket back to his industrial city on the edge of San Francisco Bay but has faced persistent challenges. He believes that the city is paying a hefty price due to its inability to tell its own story.

Richmond has been without its daily newspaper for years. According to Zepeda, the lack of coverage affects the perception of the community, creating “deserts” in essential services like hospitals and grocery stores.
In this news desert, the primary information source has been the Richmond Standard, a news website funded by Chevron, Richmond’s largest employer. But the Standard is conspicuously silent when it comes to hard-hitting reporting on the Chevron refinery, which activists blame for the city’s high rates of hospitalization for childhood asthma. The City Council voted to put a measure on the November ballot, asking for a tax on the refinery to generate tens of millions of dollars annually. The Standard’s homepage did not cover this important development.
Richmond is among many Californian communities that currently do not have a traditional newspaper. The city, which once had multiple papers, has faced economic challenges leading to their closure. As a result, the in-depth daily coverage of Richmond, a city with 23 distinct neighborhoods, competitive politics, and a crucial refinery, has gradually diminished.

Richmond’s news decline began well before eyeballs and advertising migrated online. But Richmond’s story is not just about the loss of news. It also shows how a community gets information in a post-newspaper world.
Richmond is now home to online journalism startups, including one owned by Chevron, the city’s massive refinery has been a focal point of concern due to toxic emissions. However, the independent online publications in the area have limited size and reach. Over time, Richmond has lost education and public safety reporters, causing a decline in coverage of sports and entertainment, while City Hall remains a priority.

During its peak, the coverage in Richmond was rigorous and played a significant role in civic life, according to Lazzeretti. The local newspapers of that era were not perfect, lacking ethnic diversity in the newsroom, but reporters tried to reflect what was going on in the city.

As the 21st century began, the West County Times, the only paper still covering Richmond, faced economic challenges due to the rise of online advertising. This led to a significant reduction in reporters covering Richmond on a daily basis.

Read the full story: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-24/california-newspapers-are-disappearing-richmond-is-living-what-comes-next

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4 replies »

  1. I mean, look, this is obviously a bit of a self serving story for you guys to be running. I’m sure you all
    have thought about your relationship to the community a lot, and how you can stay relevant. It seems like the original founders of the paper are now retired and you are on your third or fourth generation of leadership.

    As someone who did not grow up here, there are a handful of institutions/groupings/issues that really seem to matter in Fullerton. Each of these seems like it has varying levels of coverage, to me anyways:

    St Jude – none. I can’t think of the last story on them I read.
    CSUF – not much, seems like they would have a lot going on
    The city government – you cover it a lot.
    Downtown – a lot.
    School Districts – some but inconsistent.
    Press releases from random agencies – seems like you have a ton of these and I’m not really sure who reads these
    The various ethnic communities (Korean and Latino mostly) – not much coverage
    The churches – there are a lot and they matter, and you do not seem to cover this stuff

    The paper generally seems to skew progressive in it’s coverage which makes sense given it’s history. But the city has a significant conservative population that does not seem well served by the paper.

    Anyways, just some observations.

    • Anything concrete? Was there some St Jude news that everyone missed? Church news? What are you looking for?

      As to political bent, it’s a reasonable ask. If there’s only going to be one Fullerton paper it behooves it a strong separation between editorial/opinion and news. Opinion is fine but it’s best to keep it separate.

      I have to wonder though if conservatives even care. The only conservatives I read here come to troll not to improve.

  2. RE churches: I might have missed coverage of it, but St. Mary Catholic Church (on Commonwealth, by the community center) feeds the homeless on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Not only is it good work by the church, but going there gives you a sense of a wide-range of locals who are elderly, low-income, and/or homeless. I know some folks oppose the program, but that’s part of the picture, as well.