Custer County Chief to be in national experiment
Readers, advertisers to help develop new business model for local paper
BROKEN BOW - The Custer County Chief is excited to announce the newspaper will be participating in a national experiment to change the business model of local newspapers. For the next six month, the staff and management of the Chief as well as readers and advertisers will be involved with helping create a sustainable business plan for community newspapers.
“The current business model for the newspaper industry was developed in 1833 when Andrew Jackson was president, a model that said news should be dirt cheap,” Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas said. “That is no longer sustainable. Newspapers can no longer make it with that model. No other business could survive on a 200-year-old business model. We have to change.”
Finneman, a journalism professor and researcher, will lead the project. She crossed paths with Chief General Manager Donnis Hueftle-Bullock and Managing Editor Mona Weatherly at the Nebraska Press Association convention in April.
“The Chief was selected because I saw the extreme enthusiasm and passion the staff has for serving their community and local news. This is a great place to develop a national model,” Finneman said.
During a June 17 visit to Broken Bow, Finneman will meet with the Custer Economic Development Corporation and with focus groups. Her goal is to learn about the communities the
Chief serves and also find out what the readers and advertisers want in their local newspaper.
For those who wonder why people in Custer County and the surrounding area should care, Finneman has an answer.
“Local newspapers are absolutely critical,” she said. “Local newspapers are watching your local government. Local newspapers are sharing the good and the bad. They are celebrating the youth and sharing the stories of people in the communities.”
She sees local newspapers as essential in keeping people connected and sees a direct link from the loss of local newspapers to the divisiveness in the country.
“There is loss of cohesion due to the loss of local newspapers,” Finneman stated. “Local newspapers are most critical for democracy and for our nation.”
Finneman called the state of local newspapers a “national crisis,” and added, “A few thousand newspapers closed in the last 20 years. Northwestern University did a study and found 205 counties in the nation that are news deserts. Another 228 counties are at a huge risk of becoming news deserts in the coming years.”
The Chief is the second newspaper involved with the project. The experiment was piloted in Kansas at the Harvey County Now newspaper where it proved to be a success. Harvey County Now owners Joey and Lindsay Young will provide guidance as the Chief moves through the project.
As for the changes that readers and advertisers will see in the Chief by the end of the project, it’s too soon to say.
“We need to collect information and find out what they want. We want their support and input as we create an action plan,” Finneman said.
Chief General Manager, Donnis Hueftle- Bullock stated.,“The Chief is corporate owned but both Mona and I believe in local. We believe in the advertisers and the readers. Since our ages are creeping up, we know retirement is on the horizon! We want this paper to go well past the current 132 years of publication. That can only happen with a sustainable plan.”
Hueftle-Bullock encourages people to think about the roles their local news and newspaper have in their lives. “How do you see your local paper in 20 years?,” she said. “The focus group will help determine how we move forward as well as help other small papers asking the same questions.”
Check out the ad on page A3 to see how you can participate. Scan the QR Code or go to the listed URL to tell us what you want in the Custer County Chief. Paper surveys will also be available after June 17.