When filmmaker Heather Courtney set out to make a film about rural America, she decided to do it through the lens of a local newspaper. She visited a small-town weekly in the Texas panhandle, the Canadian Record.
It wasn’t long before she realized the newspaper wasn’t the vehicle for telling the story about a rural community … it was the story.
The newspaper, which has much in common with the Plaindealer, struggled to survive in tough economic times, with declining advertising revenue. The publisher found herself exhausted with limited resources but continued to do her best to serve the community during a pandemic, amid growing mistrust of the media.
The filmmaker told the story of the Canadian Record and its publisher, Laurie Ezzell Brown, in a documentary, “For the Record,” which we’re bringing to the Wright Opera House this weekend for a free screening.
I’ve wanted to share this film with the community since I saw it in January. I couldn’t stop thinking about the publisher and how much we could relate to her story, and the connection between the paper and the community in rural Texas.
Watching this film made me realize that newspapers aren’t just the record- keeping mechanism for a community. They’re the keepers of the stories.
Your stories. If a newspaper disappears, who tells that place’s stories?
Oftentimes, no one, unless it’s when something terrible happens and outside media helicopters in to cover a tragedy.
We lose a sense of place and we lose a connected way to tell our own stories when a newspaper dies.
I can tell you that Mike and I feel an immense sense of duty to continue doing this job the best we can, because if we don’t, who will? We have that in com- mon with Laurie, who expresses the same sentiment in the film.
This is a problem in many places. The nation has lost more than one-third of its newspapers since 2005, according to a 2024 report from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. That’s 3,300 newspapers that have closed in 20 years. The number of news deserts — counties without any locally based source of news — is increasing. It’s a disturbing trend — nearly 55 million people now have limited or no access to local news.
That means no stories about city council, no profiles of candidates for office, no coverage of local features, no place for obituaries. The result: People have less access to information they need to be involved and connected to their communities.
Newspapers like the Plaindealer also have an important duty to hold power to account, to report the truth and to suss out fact from fiction amid rumors and confusion. That’s a challenging job these days, let me tell you. And it’s not necessarily easier in a small place for several reasons, which I’m willing to discuss with you during the reception for the film screening if you attend. I’d also like to tell you about the ways we’re trying to make the Plaindealer more sustainable, and answer questions you may have about how the Plaindealer works and our recent redesign.
We are thrilled to have Laurie join us for a discussion after the film screening, moderated by Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist Judy Muller.
We’ll also have light refreshments and time for more discussion downstairs in the Tavern at the Wright.
Those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to meet our Report for America journalist, Lia Salvatierra, will have a chance to visit with her.
We’re pleased to bring this film here and we invite you to join us for an evening centered on community news.
The film screening starts at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Wright Opera House, with a discussion and refreshments afterward in the Tavern.
We look forward to spending time with you.
Erin McIntyre is the co-publisher of the Plaindealer. Email her at erin@ouraynews.com.
