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GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS If you were to ask your big city newspaper reporter to describe the typical American newspaper, he or she might say The Chicago Tribune or perhaps The New York Daily News. Journalists, regardless of their abili- ties as reporters, tend to see the world that's in front of them, not much beyond. But aska mediabuyerthe same question and you're likely to get similar answers. That makes sense, since most of their newspaper buys are going to be in top 10 or top 20 markets. But the reality is far dif- ferent. Your typical American newspaper is not in a big city, or even a small city. It's not a paper with a circulation of even 70,000 or 50,000. Your typical American newspaper, the real Ameri- can newspaper, is tiny, with a daily circulation of maybe 8,000, and often smaller. It's not in Chicago or New York but out there in the small towns of America. And there are hundreds and hundreds of them, far more than there are Chicago Tribunes and New York Daily Newses. Examples: The Red Bluff Daily News in Red Bluff, Cal- ifornia, circulation of 7,500, according to Wikipedia; The Chickasha Express Star, in Chickasha, Oklahoma, 4,600; The Taunton Daily Gazette in Taunton, Massachusetts, 6,700; The Sentinel in Carl- isle, Pennsylvania, 8,000. Small newspapers are in- teresting in themselves for what they can tell us about life in small-town America, but Media Life's interest goes beyond that, to what they can contribute to the reinvention of the American newspaper, the subject of this series. It could be a lot. Small papers are doing far better than the big dai- lies. While they took a big fi- nancial hit in the recession, they've largely come back, as the major dailies did not. They've suffered far less from the digital onslaught. They make money, and they are profitable, if not as profitable as in the past. The question is this: Why are they succeeding? What can the big papers learn from them, if anything? Can their success be scaled? For sure, small papers have some built-in advantages, the biggest being that their near- est competitors are off a safe distance away. But much of their success is of their own making. What follows are some of the qualities of the real American newspaper. To be sure, there are exceptions, but as a rule they hold for the majority most of the time and more often than not. 1) They have deep roots in their communities and they keep their communities con- nected. They cover the local goings-on, from school board meetings to Little League games to the annual town parade and the occasional bake sale for a worthy cause. People turn to them for information such as lunch menus, honor roll listings and high school basketball scores, the things that keep small towns humming. They don't clutter their front pages with national and international news, knowing their readers can find those stories on TV or the Internet. 2) They enjoy the support of local businesses, typically small businesses, as adver- tisers, by offering affordable rates. 3) They remain very print- focused. Digital abilities may run the gamut, from super- sophisticated to non-existent, but their core product is de- livered in print. They don't give away their content with- out something in return. 4) They are lean opera- tions, and were so before the recession. So when the reces- sion hit, they may have laid people off, but not in huge numbers, as at the bigger pa- pers. That meant a lot less disruption. 5) They have experienced staffs. There's lots of churn in the newspaper business, with so many reporters staying brief periods before moving on to the next larger paper for more pay and a better beat. They never really get to know the towns they cover on their way up. Staff at smaller papers tend to stay, becoming part of the communities they cover. They are much bet- ter tuned into to what their readers want to know and to do those stories. The one thing that can't be said about these small papers anymore is that they are fam- ily owned. More and more have been bought up by chains. Several years ago, War- ren Buffett's Berkshire Hath- away bought Media General's 63 papers for $142 million in cash. While the deal included the flagship Richmond Times-Dispatch, most of the papers were small dailies and weeklies, and that was the big draw for Buffett. "In towns where there is a strong sense of community," he said at the time, "there is no more important institu- tion than the local paper." Thiscolumnwaswritten by the editors of Media Life Magazine and is reprinted here by permission. Visit www.medialifemagazine. com to read more of the Media Life series "Reinventing the American Newspaper." Media Life Revealed, the qualities of a real American newspaper Cartoonist's take Mood elevation, in its most innocuous application, is prac- ticed by most people via cof- fee or cola. Caf- feine ingestion is legal and proba- bly the most com- mon way to get a "high" or to get a lift. Next in line is something fer- mented. An article in The New Yorker by Kelefa San- neh titled "Drunk with Power" details man's bouts with intoxi- cants eventually resulting in an act by Congress by ratifying the Eighteenth Amendment, which "banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicat- ing liquors. National Prohibi- tion, formerly an eccentric ob- session, was now enshrined at the center of America's legal system." It became law in 1919 and was repelled in 1933. It was, like many edicts attempt- ing to modify human behavior, a failure. Prohibition is remem- bered chiefly for not achiev- ing its aims. Today the "War on Drugs" appears to be headed in the same direction. The writer states, "People have known since the Stone Age that sugary liquids, given time, have a salutary tendency to fer- ment transforming themselves into something like beer or wine. Distillation, a more sophisticated process, was perfected only a few hundred years ago." I found it a fascinating arti- cle despite my lifelong avoid- ance of the stuff and must agree with early day prohibitionist who associated alcohol with vi- olence, misery and death. The article concludes, "The Centers for Disease Control estimates that excessive drinking is in- volved in 10% of deaths among working age people, that alco- hol is a factor in about a third of all violent crime…and de- spite public awareness cam- paigns and enforcement efforts, drunk driving still kills dozens of Americans every day." ••• Peggy Noonan, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and former speech writer for Presi- dent Ronald Reagan, has writ- ten a book about her life in the media. She notes the biggest change in her writing career came when her columns were available on the Internet and readers could respond instantly to her views on politics and pol- iticians. This give and take be- tween author and reader thus creates an often unintended in- timacy depending upon the emotion and intellect involved. On a much smaller scale, and of much less importance, is col- umn writing in a small town newspaper. Nevertheless, words in print are capable of inflam- ing readers as letters to the edi- tor often attest, to which I offer a tepid response, "To err is hu- man, to forgive is divine." ••• Intelligent citizens may have wondered how to stop the Trump bandwagon from rolling onto the next presidential elec- tion. An unveiling of his true colors is beginning to happen with disclosures of various law- suits pending against "the busi- nessman." The "Trump Univer- sity" lawsuit is one such, and details of his Taj Mahal Ca- sino impropriety in Atlantic City should go a long way to- wards his being eventual de- tachment by the Republican Party. We don't even need to go into the golf course in Scotland he bought promising 6,000 new jobs and delivering 200. ••• It is particularly rewarding when readers respond via let- ters as opposed to e mails. Of course not all have access to the wonders, and frustrations, of the Internet. Anyhow, I re- ceived a recent letter from G. Yearicks last week in which she mentioned that whereas I have a calendar featuring jackasses (not Donald Trump) she has one of koalas and kangaroos, which certainly tops mine. ••• The late Justice Antonin Sca- lia was not a saint to everyone. A letter writer to the SF Chron wrote, "Scalia did not promote the concept of the Constitu- tion's original intent. On gun control, he stripped from the second amendment the preface to bear arms that says a well- regulated militia is necessary to the security of the free state. Instead he decided the Con- stitution gave unregulated in- dividuals a right to keep guns for home use. On voting rights he violated the 15th Amend- ment which gives the Con- gress the power to protect vot- ing rights. Along with opening the door to voter suppression, he thus seized for the court an unconstitutional power to over- turn any law the court major- ity decides is obsolete. And along with his conservative col- leagues, decided a corporation has a constitutional right to profess a religion on the basis of which it could discriminate. The writers of the Constitu- tion and its amendments would probably have been appalled." Strange how sainthood is be- stowed upon a deceased, and past indiscretion are swept un- der the rug. ••• A French restaurant Le Pe- tit Chef (Little Chef) has come up with an original way to en- tertain guests while waiting for their orders by using a projector on the ceiling, and animation on the table. A small chef appears on your table and proceeds to show how items destined to be on your plate is being prepared — an animated skillet is cook- ing your entrée over a fire as side dishes are prepared and depos- ited on your plate. We go through life thinking everything has happened in our lives only to find that animation has been invented to fill the va- cant time between ordering and service. One could make money by figuring out where other voids in our lives are filled. Of course a plethora of religions already have that covered. ••• A wife is increasingly an- noyed that her husband is al- ways late for dinner. She even- tually gives him an ultimatum. "Come home late again and no dinner for you." The next night he closes up his shop, steps into the street and gets hit by a car. When he finally drags him- self home he is met at the door by his wife. She just says one word. "So?" He responds, "Dear, I am so sorry, but I got run over by a car." She responds with fire in her eye, "So it takes two hours to get run over by a car?" Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@ hotmail.com. I say Man's bouts with intoxicants through the years Small papers are doing far better than the big dailies. While they took a big financial hit in the recession, they've largely come back, as the major dailies did not. They've suffered far less from the digital onslaught. StateandNational President Barack Obama The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500, (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461, Email: president@whitehouse.gov Assemblyman James Gallagher 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor.ca.gov Representative Doug LaMalfa 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 Senator Dianne Feinstein One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Your officials Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, February 26, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4