Don’t Give Up on The Herald

The Oct. 26 retirement of Doug Bates on his 75^th birthday doesn’t mean that The Herald is headed for what printers refer to as the “hell box,” which is a container where scrap metal and other objects are discarded.

Those terms were standard while I learned the printing trade as a junior high school “printer’s devil” in the “back shop” of a weekly newspaper. In modern terms, I would be known as an intern in the mechanical department of a weekly newspaper where type was set one line at a time on a Linotype (or Intertype), placed in a chase and printed on a flatbed press.

Of course, the equipment I learned to operate as a boy now resides in museums, and everyone can check out the “news” by clicking on a cell phone.

Thus, the advent of online information media like The Herald, which made its debut last February and now needs financial help to continue posting stories and photos of interest to Highway 58 readers 24 hours a day.

Unfortunately, Doug, who created this enterprise, developed a heart condition that needs more attention than interviewing, writing and posting stories on the web 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Here’s the rub, one that has existed since the beginning of time: Who is going to pay to produce a newspaper?

The Herald chose a non-profit business model because the Highway 58 community cannot (or will not) financially support an online news model that focuses on “local” news, something that for-profit daily newspapers no longer can afford to cover.

It would cost a minimum of $100,000 to pay two journalists to produce an online news source like The Herald. Add office and travel expenses, and you have some idea of what The Herald’s board of directors faced during the past year.  (The two journalists producing The Herald have volunteered their services.)

So, what about the future?

Many newspapers are disappearing because advertising sources are drying up and many readers appear satisfied to pick and choose what they consider to be news through other sources.

The non-profit model has become the “go-to” method of financing news sources like The Herald. This process often requires several years to raise the cash needed to hire and to maintain a staff of qualified personnel.

The “local news hole” created by the demise of the Dead Mountain Echo, a printed weekly newspaper, needed to be filled primarily because the Upper 58 community needed a “watchdog” to keep an eye on local government.

Doug, a retired journalist, stepped up and helped provide that service. He’s now forced into retirement. Meanwhile, George Custer and other board members Joy Kingsbury and Susan Knudsen Obermeyer are stepping into the breach in an attempt to continue this community service.

So, be patient.

The Herald will miss Doug’s steady and professional leadership and service, but don’t give up on The Herald. This fledgling news source isn’t being thrown in the “hell box.”

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member, correspondent and columnist for The Herald.