End of an Era

[TerryWerm]

This past Wednesday, April 24th, 2024, was the publication date for the last issue of the Jordan Independent, our local newspaper, and six or eight other small-town newspapers in this area, all published by the same company. The Jordan Independent had been published continuously for over 140 years. The Shakopee Valley News and the Chaska Herald, both published in their respective county seats both had histories going back 160 years.

The loss of such a thing is generally just accepted as a sign of the changing times, of modern progress, an old technology going the way of the dinosaur. 

I reflected on this for a bit and realized some of what those publications had witnessed through the years:

Wars - The American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, WW I, WW II, Korea, Viet Nam, Desert Storm  -  and the dreadful list of local boys who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Elections - There have been so many elections and political events that there are almost too many to count.

Exceptional Events - The assassinations of JFK, RFK, Dr. Martin Luther King. A particularly memorable human-interest piece they did on my dad when he rode a bicycle from Seattle to Boston at 63 years of age during the summer of 2000. 

Births - the births of my grandparents, parents, myself, my siblings, and my children were all announced in one of those papers.

Deaths - the loss of my grandparents, parents, other relatives and friends - and two of my own sons.

School events - Sports, plays, concerts, the list goes on and on.

Miscellaneous - the coming and going of countless businesses, legal notices covering literally tens of thousands of city or county board meetings, church events, Boy Scout and Girl Scout programs, 4-H, county fairs, town celebrations, the list goes on and on and on.

It saddens me to witness the passing of something that has always been there, the reading of which I looked forward to each and every week, the one source I could count on for accurate local news - so neutral compared to the big, overly biased papers like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

I truly fear what our society will become without accurate reporting. We all know that the accepted social media platforms available today are more than capable of twisting or controlling what news is delivered and who receives it. 

I do not know what I can count on anymore, except my small Logan lathe and Clausing 8520 mill. They cannot deliver the news, but at least they can provide some stability in my life.  

I hope I never have to write about the demise of our hobby. That might be too much to bear.

[Piggiron]

I hear ya' and agree, although there was a time when I wondered why things like local news papers and magazines didn't adapt to the new "Digital Age".
Especially when it came to magazines, many times I wished I could get them in a digital format. I do prefer the textile feel of holding a news paper or magazine and find the physical item much easier to read, but for traveling and long term storage, it's hard to beat digital copies.
At one time I started scanning magazines into PDF files and used text recognition to make them searchable, but it became cumbersome separating the pages, scan them, delete pages I didn't want to keep, and file them. Worse was trying to create and update a catalog of the months, years, and articles.
I probably would have kept doing it, but had a severe hard drive failure with no external back-up and let my subscriptions lapse as the content became slimmer and less interesting.

I find it somewhat disturbing knowing the loss of all the knowledge and skills that have all but disappeared from this country. I remember a class at work discussing the big electrical transformers and how it was no longer possible to manufacture them here. Not only were the factories all closed and gone, but the knowledge on how to make them was gone too.
In some ways I'm glad I reaching the twilight years of my life, yet feel sorry for the younger generations that will have to deal with the consequences.

[Piggiron]

In the spirit of the thread, how many of you remember "Tin Foil" vs "Aluminum Foil", full service gas stations, or when the only things open for business on Sunday were the churches, hospitals, and police/fire departments ?

[OldCarGuy]

Being a paper boy I felt the pinch of the local newspaper shutting down. Besides loosing one source of income. I had neighbors that were print setters, secretaries, reporters,, etc all loose their jobs.. Cleveland had three papers, then two, followed by the last shutting down..   

Time has a way to change most everything. And in my humble opinion, for what its' worth, so often for the worst. Plus all us older folks have a more difficult time adjusting to all the newfangled devices and electronic gadgets. I've always resisted new technology. They would have to pry my decade old Nokia 2110 cell phone out of my hands. I could make & receive calls and text messages. Indeed you were limited to "1" through "o" keys to text. Couldn't take pictures,, Heck that's what a camera's for! But it only needed a charge once a week. Had big readable keys that didn't make double entries and there was only ten of them... It took my phone carrier to discontinue analog for the digital format that made my phone unusable.. Now I have to live with a so called smart phone. But for dummies?

You really don't want me to get started on how things were better in the 1950's. I was raised on Cleveland Ohio.  No one needed to lock their doors. Cars and bicycles were seldom stolen. Crime was unheard of. Besides knowing better as a child you'd never were bad. Plus there were always eyes and ears at nearly every house looking after you..  And if you fell off your bike and get hurt. There were many mothers and father's around to assist you..

[Uglydog]

Our local McGregor MN paper had/has a similar struggle.
There was alot of banter a year ago.
We are fortunate enough to keep them at least for the near future.
I'm amazed at the number of people who confess to turn to facebook and other sources for getting local updates.
Simply isn't the same....

Had a very interesting conversation with a son in law several months ago. We view the world very differently (politics), he confessed that there was absolutely no source for data which was objective. Everything had a spin/bias. But that really is the struggle with journalism. Our local paper continues to advocate debate and will print just about anything that is submitted.

Daryl
MN

[TerryWerm]

Our local paper went to publishing both paper and web-based versions several years ago. If you subscribed you could choose your delivery method; paper, electronic, or both. I chose both. This allowed me to view the news even when I was out of town, but it left me with the good old-fashioned newspaper to read each week. 

I found that I preferred paper over digital. Sitting down with the paper forced me to sit down and relax with it for a period of time. I could see the obituaries, news items, editorials, you name it, all in one place. Now, I have to log in to two different funeral home sites just to see the obits and there is NO reliable source for other local news. There is a third funeral home that does not post obits in a digital format at all, but they don't see much business either. 

I have never considered Facebook to be a source for news and will not start now. Without a reliable source of news, I seriously fear for our futures as there is no way that people can make educated decisions about their futures without accurate information.

I better stop before this gets on the verge of being political!

[Uglydog]

Political?
Economic?
Cultural?
Etc?

I believe that fingers can be pointed in every direction.
Perhaps I'm just old, But I also prefer paper.
But then I like bobber fishing, and CCW revolvers as well.

Daryl

[savarin]

Another huge problem with the digital age is the rapid change in storage mediums and programs/applications where older forms cannot be read any more.
Its frightening how much knowledge has and is being lost due to this.
Librarians the world over have been bemoaning this fact for years now.

[Piggiron]

Even worse is the constant changes in "Terms of Service" associated with these programs even without your consent.
You can have an older program you initially purchased and with the click of a mouse they change the terms so you have to allow them access to all your files in order to keep using the program. Don't agree and you lose access to all your files since the program will no longer function.
One of the reasons I started to switch to open source programs.

[chips and more]

Kinda related? Last night I tried to get an iphone Lego build it app for my granddaughter. The app wanted to use my GPS location? What the heck for! The app waned to verify that I was over 18 years old...why? And the app wasn't done with questions either. It's just a Lego build it app, why all the personal and unrelated questions? There is no more privacy in this digital Google search world. I canceled the app.

[34_40]

Back to the newspaper. Here on the east coast is no different. Our local paper had a huge circulation back through the 60's & 70's.  They covered all the southcoast of Mass and many miles inland..  By the end of the 80's you could see the future and it was bleak.  It still exists digitally (kinda / sorta) and the laid off writers have created their own small digital "paper" but I just don't like reading a newspaper on a computer.. it doesn't "fit" for me.