the lakeville journal co. editorial

Revitalizing Local News

A coalition of 22 donors has announced Press Forward, a national initiative to “strengthen communities and democracy” by supporting local news with $500 million over the next five years. The MacArthur Foundation,  one of the nation’s largest independent foundations, is among the partners in the initiative, which includes many familiar big names among charitable foundations and which aims to enhance local journalism at an unprecedented level.  

The local news initiative is described as an effort to focus on the importance of local news as a key to community cohesion. It also seeks to support new models and solutions that work and to address inequities in coverage and practice of journalism. 

The dawn of the 21st century in America was witness to a radical decline in the availability of local news sources. Since 2005 approximately 2,200 newspapers have closed. One in five Americans now lives in what is called a “news desert” where there is no reliable source of news. Meanwhile, social media has exploded. There is a perception among some that because Facebook is there, there’s no need for a newspaper. Yet social media has a self-selecting limitation. Our natural tendency to seek out what our friends are doing is further amplified by algorithms that have a multiplier effect, leading sometimes to life in a bubble. 

The disappearance of so many local newspapers also has coincided with an increasingly divided nation and what the MacArthur Foundation sees as a weakened trust in American institutions. The local newspaper is vital for our survival as a democracy. It goes without saying that to prevent a community from becoming a news desert, it would need a healthy and independent free press. 

Fortunately we don’t live in a news desert. We can rely on our local newspaper week after week to inform us about what’s happening in our community. Maybe it’s the news that Sharon Hospital was denied its bid to close labor and delivery services. Or it’s a story by Maud Doyle that takes a comprehensive look at EMS volunteers. Or a story by Judith O’Hara Balfe about a vexing school bus driver shortage. Or a story about an unusual election for selectmen in North Canaan. Or even just a photograph of the season finale at the Norfolk Festival. 

The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News have their readers and advertisers to thank for still being in business. Before the paper became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, when it seemed to be running out of pavement, its readers responded to the call to keep it going, knowing that a local newspaper provides critical information, that it knits communities together, keeps public officials accountable and above all is essential to a thriving democracy. Even now, into its second year as a nonprofit, The Lake­ville Journal needs community support to continue on its path, which is sustainability and growth. That’s why a small group of key supporters is sponsoring a $100,000 matching-gift challenge through October 31. (See information here.) 

On refrigerators all across the Northwest Corner families post clipped-out photos of a school performance, a high-school athlete excelling in a sport or a photo of someone they know who got their picture in the paper. These mementos are the memories from our shared history. They aren’t the ephemera of social media. And they weren’t taken in a news desert, thanks to all our readers and advertisers. 

the lakeville journal co. editorial

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit