The last American newspaper takes the stage

Listen to the audio

Available now on:

Click to Download the
Complete Audio Transcript

From newsroom to theater stage

Ken Tingley spent more than two decades leading The Post-Star in Glens Falls, New York, guiding it to a Pulitzer Prize and through years of turbulence as the business changed around him. Retirement brought time to reflect—and to write. His memoir, The Last American Newspaper, became both a record of what was and a love letter to the newsroom. But Tingley didn’t stop at the page. He turned his memoir into a stage play that debuted this summer at the Adirondack Theatre Festival, drawing sold-out crowds.

“There were originally three shows scheduled, and they had so much interest they added a fourth show,” Tingley said. “Then they all sold out. So it was over 100 people in each of the performances, and they were adding chairs right up until the last minute.”

The success wasn’t just about nostalgia. It was about community members seeing their own lives reflected back at them through stories they remembered from their local paper. “When I wrote the book after I retired, I started going around to community groups—the Rotary Club, the Elks Club, senior citizen groups—and giving presentations with a slideshow about these stories that were in the book,” Tingley said. “What I found when I was giving those presentations was that people seemed to be emotionally moved by the stories, by the coverage of the newspaper. They remembered them. They sometimes knew some of the people involved. And that really struck me. I said, I’m not that good of a speaker to believe I’m moving some of these folks to tears. But the stories were.”

Finding the story within the story

Adapting decades of journalism into a two-hour play meant choosing carefully. “I had 29 chapters in the book, so you’re absolutely right—it was really difficult,” Tingley said. “Part of the thing is, well, you can only do so much. I think we started out with four characters—because it costs money every time you add a character. People don’t think of that. I think we ended up with six characters.”

That decision shaped the storytelling. “How do you tell the story that’s essentially going to be only in the newsroom with six characters? And how can you tell those stories?” he said. “My goal was really to introduce people not only to the characters and the passions of people in the newsroom, but also to that newsroom dynamic: the dark humor sometimes, the arguments that happen, but yet we’re all still on the same team. To try to truly portray that—and, of course, the triumphs and the tragedy.”

For the artistic director at the Adirondack Theatre Festival, Miriam Weisfeld, the appeal was clear. “She didn’t throw me out, which I’ll be forever grateful for,” Tingley said. “And it turned out she had a real interest in it because she was seeing that decline of newspapers and what it meant for communities when they lose their newspaper or have it become a shadow of what it once was.”

A play in two acts

Tingley structured the production to show both sides of his newsroom experience. “The whole first act is about some of the great stories we did and the effect it had on the community,” he said. “And then, of course, the second act is kind of dealing with the cutbacks and how the staff is dealing with seeing their roles kind of diminished.

Audiences responded powerfully to both. “I think the second act—like I said, when the staff is struggling with the cutbacks and layoffs and those kinds of things. And then there’s a scene where the publisher and editor are engaged in kind of an ethical dilemma, let’s call it,” Tingley said. “I was sitting behind a woman who I knew was a retired journalist, and when the editor delivers a line, she audibly gasped. It affected her so much. And I went, wow—that really hit her. She was so engaged emotionally.”

Moments like that reinforced why he wanted to bring these stories to the stage. “One of the questions I heard all the time as editor was, ‘Did you guys even think about this before publishing?’” Tingley said. “Yeah, we often thought about it a lot—and argued about it, fought about it. And I think that was a glimpse behind the curtain that people had not seen before.”

Resonating beyond Glens Falls

While rooted in his community, Tingley believes the themes of his play are universal. “It was almost universal—that this is something that’s happening right now throughout the country,” he said. “Communities all across the country are dealing with this right now. And it is a very timely topic, with news deserts and everything we’re seeing.”

That urgency has fueled his hopes for the production. “We’re currently fundraising to make sure it gets a full production next summer here at the Adirondack Theatre Festival—the world premiere,” Tingley said. “You can go to adirondacktheaterfestival.com and donate if you want to. We’re looking for that because it does cost a lot of money to get theater going, but I think the interest is there.”

For Tingley, the broader message is about valuing the work of journalists. “I’d like them to have a better understanding and appreciation for reporters who do this work at all levels,” he said. “We all hear it: ‘Oh, you can’t trust the media’ and ‘There’s fake news.’ And that fake news thing just sticks—and it’s a horror for folks like me. So I’d like to hope that people have a better appreciation for the reporters—that most of them are just trying to get it right, to get you the facts, get you the information you need to know. And I guess the other part: that they need to appreciate the journalism and pay for it. They have to open their wallets.”

Pulling back the curtain

The production didn’t just tell stories—it showed the humanity behind them. Tingley recalled how professional actors approached their roles. “These were professional actors. These weren’t community theater actors. These were Actors’ Equity union actors—some of them had been on Broadway. So these were high-quality actors,” he said.

That attention to detail extended to the actor who portrayed Tingley himself. “The actor who played me was from nearby Bennington, Vermont—a Chicago actor. He called me up and said he wanted to have lunch, just to meet me and talk. We did. We had lunch—it was very pleasant. Honestly, I felt like I was interviewing him more than he was trying to get information from me,” Tingley said. “And after the first night of the play, a bunch of people in my family said to me, ‘Wow, the guy playing you really got your mannerisms down.’ And I was like, mannerisms? I have mannerisms? But he had been studying how I spoke and carried myself—and he pulled that off.”

The process also revealed how little outsiders understand about newsroom routines. “When we did the first table read, which was a fascinating process, I found that these actors wanted information about how newspapers really operated,” Tingley said. “At times, I felt like I was giving a Newspaper 101 course. ‘Why would you do that? How would you do that? Did you really have the page one meetings like this? Did you really do a critique session with sticky notes?’ They were fascinated by the process—something they weren’t aware of.”

Lessons for publishers

For news executives, Tingley sees a clear takeaway. “From what I saw with the audience at my play is that there is still a great audience for newspapers—that they want a great newspaper. And they may even be a little bit more willing to pay for it,” he said. “But the trouble is, for my paper at our height, we had about 45 people in the newsroom. Now there are six or seven. It’s really hard to have a quality product, and people are very frustrated by that, while of course the price continues to go up for home subscriptions.”

He looks back at decisions that undermined sustainability. “Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, we started out with a paid website. Then the corporate folks took over and decided, no, we’re going to have a free website because that’s the new model,” Tingley said. “We gave away 1,200 subscribers. We thought, well, that’s just silly. Why did you do that? You had them paying for it, the product was great—keep them paying for it. But those decisions were made.”

For him, the future of journalism rests on investment. “I do think there’s a hunger for journalism, a hunger for in-depth journalism,” he said. “That’s painfully obvious, and it’s not being done much anymore. And where you get the investment money to do that—I understand the predicament so many are in with debt and everything—but the hunger is there.”

A journalist still writing

Though retired from his editor’s chair, Tingley hasn’t stopped contributing. “Like so many others, I’m also writing a Substack column called The Front Page along with one of my former colleagues,” he said. “I’m out there trying to fill in the gaps in my community because they do very little commentary and very few columns and editorials. So I’m trying to give the news context. Still trying to contribute in that way.”

For Tingley, whether in print, on stage, or online, the mission remains the same: to help communities see themselves clearly and understand what’s at stake when journalism fades away.