Easy Sunday: Southern Oregon is not a news desert

There is curated news in Southern Oregon.

It isn't the "good old days" of strong local newspapers, but it isn't zero, either. 

Curated news means that someone with credibility on the line reviewed the information and put their personal and institutional credibility on the line.

Local residents need to work harder and spend some money, but local news is available. For a century the Medford Mail Tribune, with a couple dozen news reporters and editors, gave a comprehensive report on local events. The Trib shriveled in size, then got nasty, then suddenly disappeared.

Good news: New news sources have sprung up in the vacuum.

Some legacy news sources remain: KOBI-TV has a local news operation broadcasting on channel 5. The station remains in local ownership with deep community roots. Their news is integrated with their website and Facebook page. It is ad-sponsored, i.e. free to the consumer. It has the inherent benefit and problem of TV news: Stories hold attention by their visual elements If necessary, and if there isn't a burning car or a ski slope to catch the viewer's attention, the visual will be a person standing outside the door of a public meeting, explaining what just happened; but a long news clip is a few seconds, not a few minutes. TV news works better for highlights and headlines, not details. TV news has its place, but it is not a newspaper.

https://kobi5.com/category/news/local-news/

For details, one needs the written word. The pleasant surprise for me is the Grants Pass Daily Courier. I subscribe. There are five editions a week, available as a delivered newspaper and on line. The physical newspaper, which I get, costs $360/a year. I consider it worth it. I like holding a paper. The paper covers both Jackson and Josephine County news, plus wire service and cooperative agreements for state and national news. It is the real deal.

Old timers in Southern Oregon may remember the Daily Courier as a deeply biased, conservative, small-town Fox-Tea Party- Murdoch-style paper. It changed. The Daily Courier is reasonable. Balanced. Informative. The digital edition is $159/year, following some promotional offers to get one back in the habit of reading a daily local newspaper.

Rogue Valley Times

The Rogue Valley Times arose when the Mail Tribune folded. It started out strong when it was owned by an Oregon publishing group, but a year ago that group, including the RV Times, got sold to the Carpenter Media Group, an investment company. It is the familiar story of newspapers owned by investment companies: They promptly hollowed out the newsroom. The RV Times' news coverage is hit and miss, but a news consumer must pick up news from where one can, in bits and pieces. Once the various promotional deals run out, the cost of a subscription is about $208/year. 

Ashland.news

Ashland.news is a community-supported nonprofit newspaper, published online. It focuses on news in Ashland and Talent, Oregon. It has reporters, editors, and columnists. Access is free, and the news is updated as events happen. Readers who want news delivered can subscribe to its newsletter: https://ashland.news/newsletter/  Ashland.news began four years ago and is thriving. Readers make voluntary contributions to pay for the service. It is the public broadcasting model: The information is free, and if you want it to continue you are urged to donate. Over a thousand people do so, in a mix of subscription-equivalent donations and major donors.

https://theashlandchronicle.com

The Ashland Chronicle is another non-profit news source, again primarily serving Ashland. They patch together original reporting from professional journalists and editors, news releases from Ashland institutions, and letters and comments from local readers. It is free.

I don't claim that being well informed on local news is easy or cheap. It isn't. Patching news sources together, with paid subscriptions to the Courier and RV Times, and voluntary donations to Ashland.news and the local public radio station, Jefferson Public Radio, which also has a local news department adds up For Oregon news including state government news, I also subscribe to and recommend Oregonlive.com -- the old Oregonian newspaper. A digital subscription starts at $139 for the first year -- but then jumps up in price. Be aware.

It is a new world for journalism. Ads don't pay the bills. We do. If we want news, we pay for it. The alternative is to be misinformed by social media rumor, public relations hackery, and clickbait.

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