Building Newspapers And Communities p.26

By: mark fitzgerald

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ARE taking a long look at their first name these days.
Increasingly, publishers of community papers believe they must build their own communities? by working to renew civic life and support local mom and pop businesses ? if their papers are to survive.
The most recent sign of this renewed interest in community could be seen on the agenda of the 111th annual convention and trade show of America's largest community newspaper trade group, the National Newspaper Association. NNA devoted a huge hunk of its convention to presentations about building a community ? its economic base, its civic and social life and its spirit.
At the Nashville convention, NNA, in a partnership with the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media at Kansas State University's A.Q. Miller School of Journalism, brought in academics, economic development experts and other professionals in a "Community Building"