Family newspaper: Like coffee, debate and other traditions worth preserving
Several years ago I had a conversation with a young reporter who had just been hired by The Bakersfield Californian. He'd had several job offers but had chosen this one. When I asked him why he wanted to settle in this much maligned place, his answer was firm: "This is one of the last family-owned newspapers in the country," he said, "and I'm lucky to have the opportunity to work here."
His use of the word "family" struck a chord with me. When that word comes to mind, I remember my grandmother's big dining room table and holiday dinners with all the aunts and uncles and cousins talking a mile a minute and laughing at the same stories every year.
We were a loving family, but the elders held disparate political views, and sooner or later the names of Roosevelt and Hoover would come up, at which point we children would look at each other across the table and roll our eyes, as if to say: "Here it comes!" Grandma and Uncle Herbert were staunch Hoover supporters, as was Uncle Charlie. Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Harry were passionate advocates for Roosevelt, and so it went, with everyone but the children expressing hot opinions.
Finally, as if on cue, Uncle Henry, not the brightest light in the family, would stand up and utter his favorite expression: "Well, I'll be a sad sack!," and he would excuse himself to the sitting room where we could hear him loudly rustling the pages of the daily newspaper. At that point it was laughter all around and cajoling of Uncle Henry to come on back for coffee and dessert.
I think of a locally owned newspaper as a kind of family table. That's where we share the news that concerns us most closely, and where we have civilized disagreements with each other by means of letters to the editor. When there is a death in the extended community family, we learn of it there, along with some history we did not know about the person in the loving reports of grieving relatives, and we learn also where to go to offer our sympathy and respect.
At the present time, The Californian is suffering from the same problems that are facing newspapers all over the nation. Operating costs and materials, especially newsprint, are increasingly and prohibitively expensive. Younger people, especially, are choosing to find their news online through the Internet. The local newspaper seems to have made the same sort of cost-cutting decisions many businesses have made in these recessionary times, including staff reductions.
The new, weekday tabloid format is another response to these enormous difficulties. Personally, I think it is an ingenious idea, and I thank the newspaper's staff for continuing to hold fast and not give up as so many papers around the country have done.
I hope that others in our community will see this problem as I do and be willing to ride out the rough times with our historic, family-owned and community-oriented newspaper. In this respect we are the envy of countless communities whose local news source has collapsed and gone away altogether.
Ann Williams is a retired high school English teacher who volunteers for several local groups, including Friends of the Library.
