Hometown Newspapers

I like hometown newspapers. Sometimes they're maudlin, often full of typos, some hilarious, but they are the spine of the small town. You read them to learn who has died, who has had a baby and who is putting up the best strawberry preserves on the continent.

We seem to have one here in Zephyrhills....it's called, aptly, The Zephyrhills News, and it has been around close to 100 years. It's owner is a quirky guy named Scripps who hails from the famed Scripps-Howard newspaper clan.

Lately, he's had the paper running on the blood sweat and tears of one man,
Gary Hatrick. Gary takes the pictures. Gary writes the stories. Gary writes the editorials, Gary writes the police stories and the feature stories, and he does it for a pittiance, but he does it each and every week, and as a result of a single soul's labors there is a newspaper on Zephyrhills doorsteps every Thursday.

Then, last Friday, Scripps let Hatrick go. I think the word is 'fired.'

Since then there has been but one word from Hatrick. He feels as if a load has been removed from his shoulders, as well he might.

In just 24 hours the newspaper is due on the street. That will be the first clue of whether the paper is still with us. A drive by the office Tuesday revealed no burnings of midnight oil, so whatever is to come about, if anything, it won't be done in haste.

Were this an ordinary town there would be a group of local businessmen scrabbling about trying to see what they could do to keep the paper (and their advertising vehicle) alive. Not in Zephyrhills, or so it seems.

Nothing would please us more than to see a local white knight ride out of the darkness to rescue the old girl, but it takes fistfulls of money to do that.

What's really strange about all this is that small, weekly newspapers seem to be the moneymakers in the present publishing climate. It causes me to wonder why a paper that so neatly seems to fill the bill is teetering on the brink.

If the paper is left to die, more's the pity, and the city will be less well off for the loss of it.

Arjay