From the Editor: Thank you for reading!
Founding Editor Sean Scott thanks the readers and others who have made the Oxford Free Press possible as his time with the publication comes to an end.
Hey folks!
As my time with the Free Press comes to a close, I’ve spent the past two months looking back on the experience and thinking about what comes next for the publication.
In the immediate future, what happens now is a two-week break from print publication before our new editor, Aidan Cornue, formally starts (read more about him online or in last week’s issue). But beyond that? Well, in large part, that depends on you all.
If you’ve read any of our board secretary Richard Campbell’s columns on the state of journalism over the past year, it’ll come as no surprise that more than 3,200 print newspapers have closed since 2005. The Associated Press wrote last October that nearly 2,000 newsroom jobs were cut in the previous year alone. While the U.S. had a net gain of 81 digital news sites last year, launching a print product is a more expensive lift.
I’m not naturally a very outgoing person or a risk-taker. When I decided to take a chance on the Free Press, it was largely because I trusted the team that makes up our Board of Directors. I still had reservations, though. The precarious position of print media is a consistent refrain in journalism classes.
Instead of skepticism and a lack of funding, though (my biggest fears), the Free Press was quickly embraced by the community. The support since the first day we launched our website has exceeded any expectations I had, even more so since publishing our first print edition last July.
In the past year and change, we’ve published more than 650 stories ranging from road closures to regular columns and in-depth investigations. Those of you who know me personally won’t be shocked to hear that I’m most proud of our coverage of Miami University’s plans for a new arena and the widespread opposition to building it on Cook Field.
Every story though, no matter how thoroughly reported or well done, would mean nothing without you all reading them.
Our readers, who stretch from Oxford to China, spent more than eight months of their time reading the Free Press on our website alone. That doesn’t include those of you reading this letter right now in print or the time our nearly 900 newsletter subscribers have spent catching up on the news in their inboxes each week.
When I reached out to several members of the community last month to gauge the Free Press’ impact, one consistent piece of feedback rose above any individual responses. People uniformly said that having a weekly paper in town once more was much anticipated and has made a difference in the way people engage with local issues.
You don’t need to pay close attention to understand how polarized today’s national media landscape is. It’s important to remember, though, that we live locally, not nationally. You’ll see the people we write about in Kroger or at an Uptown concert. You can choose to speak at an Oxford City Council meeting or at Miami’s Board of Trustees if you disagree with decisions being made. And if there’s something you have to say about the local news, you can tell us about it in a letter to the editor.
Local journalism isn’t a magic bullet to solve the polarization we face today. It is, however, a start — a start that you all have been a part of and supported just by reading the Free Press in the past year. I hope you’ll continue reading and offering financial support well into the future, and that you’ll go further by reading The Miami Student, suggesting ideas and offering feedback when you have it.
So thank you all for reading the local news. Thank you to our Board of Directors for their support for local journalism, and to our volunteers who ensure that the physical paper gets into your hands each week. Thank you to all of our past interns, and especially to Taylor Powers and Kethan Babu who will keep the paper going this summer until Aidan arrives. Thank you, Ginny Reynolds, for taking on the task of being our business manager, and to our designer, Macey Chamberlin, who spends hours each week laying out the print edition and tells me when I’ve overstuffed an issue with too much content.
As I’m preparing to move to Maine, I’m looking forward to becoming an avid Free Press reader like the rest of you. This publication is small, and it’s defined in large part by the editor, so Aidan will surely put his own spin on things. As he does, I know he’ll have the board, our generous volunteers and columnists and the rest of the community cheering him on.
From the editor, one last time,
Sean
