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Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers
Community journalism has long been a part of the lifeblood of America, but never have the stakes been so high for the people behind it.
In Beacons in the Darkness, award-winning journalist Dave Hoekstra interviews the people trying to keep the lights on at community newspapers across the country amid buyouts, declining revenues, fake news, and a pandemic. This book is not another account of the death of local journalism—but rather a celebration of the community ties, perseverance, and empathy that’s demonstrated in community newsrooms from Hillsboro, Illinois, to Charleston, South Carolina, to Marfa, Texas.
Hoekstra recounts the sometimes-scandalous but always-industrious stories of the families who built these newspapers and passed them down through generations. Modern publishers and owners describe in their own words their struggles and experiments to stay alive in the digital age, not just for their businesses and their families but also for the communities they serve and the neighbors whose stories they tell in their reporting. Beacons in the Darkness provides an intimate view inside the organizations that still publish photos of the local bowling league and the outlandishly large mushrooms on the edge of town, leaving you with a rekindled fondness for your own community paper—and a renewed appreciation of what we all stand to lose without one.
In Beacons in the Darkness, award-winning journalist Dave Hoekstra interviews the people trying to keep the lights on at community newspapers across the country amid buyouts, declining revenues, fake news, and a pandemic. This book is not another account of the death of local journalism—but rather a celebration of the community ties, perseverance, and empathy that’s demonstrated in community newsrooms from Hillsboro, Illinois, to Charleston, South Carolina, to Marfa, Texas.
Hoekstra recounts the sometimes-scandalous but always-industrious stories of the families who built these newspapers and passed them down through generations. Modern publishers and owners describe in their own words their struggles and experiments to stay alive in the digital age, not just for their businesses and their families but also for the communities they serve and the neighbors whose stories they tell in their reporting. Beacons in the Darkness provides an intimate view inside the organizations that still publish photos of the local bowling league and the outlandishly large mushrooms on the edge of town, leaving you with a rekindled fondness for your own community paper—and a renewed appreciation of what we all stand to lose without one.
281 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 11, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 8, 2023
What if the city manager of your town decided to give himself a huge raise? And the city council wanted in on that, too? And what the heck, the police chief and all the officers want more pay too. And they all looked ahead and decided to jack up the contributions to their pensions and retirement accounts. And to pay for it all, they raised your property taxes to be the highest in the state.
If this sounds frightening or infuriating, be warned: This scenario actually happened. Read about Bell, Calif., scandal
Eventually all those involved were caught and held accountable, but not until a team of investigative journalists starting reporting on it.
But it shouldn’t have gotten that far. This case is often cited as one of the consequences of the gutting of the local newspaper industry over the past 15 years. In this case the local paper had all but shut down, so no one was covering the local government, and with no one watching, greed prevailed. It wasn’t until the nearby Los Angeles Times picked up the story that the graft was revealed.
This book picks up on the aftermath of that eye-opening scandal. The author, long-time Chicago columnist Dave Hoekstra, does what he and other local journalists have been doing forever, telling peoples’ stories.
For this book, he went across the country and talked with some of the people keeping their community papers alive. The pulse continues to be faint, but no one knows better than these folks what happens when no one is watching.
For most of the people Hoekstra talked to, the local paper is in their blood, in a very real sense. Many community papers have been family owned for generations. In one small town in Illinois, Hoekstra talked with the family that owns the local paper. The managing editor married into the family, and Hoekstra starts their story with the line, “Imagine having daily family meetings with your in-laws.”
Throughout the book, you’re reminded how a good storyteller plies his trade, both in the author’s writing and in the work of his subjects.
The author’s journey to tell the stories of the storytellers coincided with the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, which was particularly brutal to the already struggling industry. The staff at the papers are undaunted, but they’re not naïve. They are aware of the technology changes affecting their work, but the economics of sustainable revenue remain elusive.
Through it all, these hearty journalists continue to report on the births, deaths, fires and crimes. They also show up to every boring school board and city council meeting because they know what could happen if they stopped. Their stories are sometimes glum but always hopeful.
It’s easy, and often lazy, to blame “the media” or cry “fake news” about things we don’t like to hear, but all of these local citizens remain on the job to remind us that a free press is guaranteed as a right in the First Amendment of our Constitution.
This book doesn’t dwell on the way things used to be or try to bathe in nostalgia. Nor does it seek answers. What it does is document a truth in readable and relatable way, like good journalism is supposed to.
KO’D
Find this book in our catalog
If this sounds frightening or infuriating, be warned: This scenario actually happened. Read about Bell, Calif., scandal
Eventually all those involved were caught and held accountable, but not until a team of investigative journalists starting reporting on it.
But it shouldn’t have gotten that far. This case is often cited as one of the consequences of the gutting of the local newspaper industry over the past 15 years. In this case the local paper had all but shut down, so no one was covering the local government, and with no one watching, greed prevailed. It wasn’t until the nearby Los Angeles Times picked up the story that the graft was revealed.
This book picks up on the aftermath of that eye-opening scandal. The author, long-time Chicago columnist Dave Hoekstra, does what he and other local journalists have been doing forever, telling peoples’ stories.
For this book, he went across the country and talked with some of the people keeping their community papers alive. The pulse continues to be faint, but no one knows better than these folks what happens when no one is watching.
For most of the people Hoekstra talked to, the local paper is in their blood, in a very real sense. Many community papers have been family owned for generations. In one small town in Illinois, Hoekstra talked with the family that owns the local paper. The managing editor married into the family, and Hoekstra starts their story with the line, “Imagine having daily family meetings with your in-laws.”
Throughout the book, you’re reminded how a good storyteller plies his trade, both in the author’s writing and in the work of his subjects.
The author’s journey to tell the stories of the storytellers coincided with the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, which was particularly brutal to the already struggling industry. The staff at the papers are undaunted, but they’re not naïve. They are aware of the technology changes affecting their work, but the economics of sustainable revenue remain elusive.
Through it all, these hearty journalists continue to report on the births, deaths, fires and crimes. They also show up to every boring school board and city council meeting because they know what could happen if they stopped. Their stories are sometimes glum but always hopeful.
It’s easy, and often lazy, to blame “the media” or cry “fake news” about things we don’t like to hear, but all of these local citizens remain on the job to remind us that a free press is guaranteed as a right in the First Amendment of our Constitution.
This book doesn’t dwell on the way things used to be or try to bathe in nostalgia. Nor does it seek answers. What it does is document a truth in readable and relatable way, like good journalism is supposed to.
KO’D
Find this book in our catalog
Displaying 1 of 1 review