• by Melynda Fuller , February 14, 2018

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported on the shuttering of a chain of Eastside community newspapers. Dolores Sanchez, the 81-year-old publisher had lost her husband 13 months earlier; her son died soon after from a heart attack. She looked for a buyer. None appeared, and she was forced to close down. 

The bilingual papers, under the umbrella Eastern Group Publications, included the Eastside Sun, Montebello Comet and Vernon Sun, among others. Though the publications were running on a shoestring budget, and financial woes were a reality, the loss to the community is profound. And it raises question: Where can readers turn after local publications cease operations?

The LAT does an excellent job of outlining exactly why local publications are needed. The papers frequently cover stories that larger outlets will ignore. Plus, printed papers are reaching readers who don’t have or can’t afford internet access.

Sanchez made it a priority to cover issues that altered and effected the communities the newspapers served, including answering questions about the fate of streets and buildings to be demolished. According to the L.A. Times, the publisher “ran more than 100 stories about toxic emissions and lead contamination from the now-shuttered battery recycler Exide Technologies in Vernon.”

One woman quoted in the story, Michelle Levander, director of the USC Center for Health Journalism, and the editor and publisher of Boyle Heights, stated: "There's not really much left of outlets that are serving communities in that kind of intimate way. .It leaves people living in those communities feeling a little bit alone, like their events are not marked.

"If journalism is supposed to be the first draft of history, that history is being lost, too."

That reality brings into stark focus a truth about local journalism: Small print publications not only inform the public, they protect it. Who else will take the time to investigate and hold public officials accountable for decisions that may affect a marginalized population? What, if anything, will  replace them?

It’s no secret that local news sources have been struggling to survive nationwide, with some scaling down production and others being swallowed by large conglomerates. But the Sanchez's hyperlocal publications brings to the fore how important it is to sustain a community's interests.  

The necessity of small newspapers goes beyond the business of publishing. They are a public service. Unfortunately, the current state of journalism provides little solace, time or room to remember what is lost and ask how small publishers might be saved.