My heart broke last week after learning the Catahoula News Booster was closing its doors and ceasing publication after 173 years of service. As its publisher, Kim Cloessner, sat in my office with tears in her eyes, it was almost the same feeling I’ve had many times before sitting with a family member who’d just lost a loved one in death.
I’ve written about the condition of small newspapers in the past and even shared heartbreaking stories of communities that had experienced the closure of their longtime newspapers and the devastating effects it has on an area. But having one shutdown so near took it to a whole new level.
Catahoula Parish is more than just our neighbor, they are literally “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.” LaSalle was created out of Catahoula in 1910 and many of LaSalle’s residents are related to many of Catahoula’s. My mother-in-law’s family are all Catahoula residents, and we’ve spent many holidays in the hills of Rosefield and on the river in Enterprise – not to mention the vast number of fried catfish I’ve consumed at Jim Bowie’s.
Cloessner bought the News Booster some ten years ago and had great success during those early years. Subscriptions were up, ad sales were up and all looked great for the future of Catahoula’s newspaper. Then Covid came. As a new America emerged during and after the pandemic, a new world where digital media became king, one of its greatest victims has been small town newspapers.
The loss of businesses, people and ad sales was too much for the nearly 175-year-old News Booster to overcome. As Kim stated in her final farewell article on the front page of her paper last week, “Since I became publisher in 2016, our parish has lost more than 2,000 residents. Two of our schools have closed. Utility costs continue to rise, and the overall economy has become increasingly depressed with each passing year. Most of our local businesses are struggling and so are the families who call this parish home. These challenges have made it impossible for the newspaper to continue as it once did.”
My wife and I spent a great deal of time going over the financials of the Catahoula newspaper with every intent to buy it and keep it operating. As I told Kim Cloessner in my office, I don’t want to see any newspaper close, and I was determined to do everything in my power to keep it going. But the truth is, Kim was right. Without businesses and the community supporting a newspaper, it won’t succeed – period. When our final numbers were tallied, we realized the amount of capital needed to turn the deficits into gains would be too much for us at this time. As much as my heart longed to help, we just couldn’t afford to do it…right now.
Some quick research last week revealed that last year, 136 newspapers, mostly weekly, smalltown newspapers, closed their doors forever. An average of 2.5 newspapers closed each week last year, mostly from small, independent owners in rural areas.
The result is an estimated 50 million Americans now live in areas classified as “news deserts” – areas where people have limited or no access to reliable local news sources.
Back in 2005, there were 7,325 newspapers published in the United States. Today, that number has decreased to 4,490 with that number dropping each week. For many years, small town newspaper closures were the result of consolidations by big chains – corporation media giants. Now, the trend has shifted to include longtime independent owners, such as the Catahoula News Booster.
According to Professor Tim Franklin of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, “These small, independent owners are the ones that were trusted. They tended to live in the communities their papers covered. There was a glue between the owners and the community and that is now unraveled.”
Having an owner/ editor live in the area of the newspaper is vitally important to the vitality of a newspaper. As a member of the community, they want their area to grow and succeed, not just for their newspaper, but because they genuinely care about their friends and neighbors. They realize growth equates to a better life for all residents; thus, they are invested in the area as much as anyone and in some ways, even more.
Having a local newspaper close is really like losing a grandparent. You didn’t see them all the time, but you knew they were always there. You may not have listened to their stories each week, but oh how you cherished the moments you were able to sit by their side and hear the stories from yesterday in their very own voice. Then one day – they’re gone. The regret of not spending more time with them overwhelms you and possibly some guilt is associated with their passing from not supporting them more.
Since we acquired ownership of this newspaper in 2023, we’ve had many positive comments about the changes we’ve made, and we’ve had some negative comments as well. We have done our best to be as transparent with our operation with the public as possible and please allow me to once again share my heart.
We love this newspaper, this parish and our way of life here in conservative rural America. But the reality is the world has changed. While my generation (and older generations) loves to sit down with a cup of coffee and scourer over the printed pages each week, the vast majority of Americans, including those living right here in rural America, prefer seeing their news on social media or websites (according to the most recent polls and studies).
We have no intention to stop printing a physical paper anytime soon, so everyone can relax. But what we have done in the last three years is upped our online game and prepared us for the digital era with major advancements in technology, employees and training. These steps have allowed us to secure our footing and build a foundation to keep your hometown newspaper operating for many years to come.
But all the money spent to prepare us for the future will be for naught without the support of the community. We sincerely thank everyone, from businesses that advertise to readers who subscribe, for the support we’ve received over the years and ask that you continue to do so in order that this parish never has to endure the consequences of losing their newspaper like our dear friends in Catahoula.
