1882. If you have a history of any kind with this newspaper you know what those numbers mean. Like BR549, we will never forget.
We believe in community journalism, covering the local town board, the local school board, the county commissioners, government in general, and what is going on in a community. We also believe it is necessary to editorialize on the good and bad in the community with strong opinion pieces and have a robust letters to the editor section, and yes news of shopping opportunities via local advertising. All are in good newspapers.
Smithfield has some of this community journalism, but sadly as of last month little of it is in the Smithfield Herald. No more editorials anywhere can be found. A story in the June 2 News and Observer signaled the end was near. Even more sad sometime in 2002 we and others then employed in the newspaper noted our concerns to management at both the local level and the Raleigh home office about the path the newspaper was on, the threats to our assets, and if something did not change where we were headed. We were the advertising manager at the newspaper at the time and were willing to voice our concerns quite strongly about the future. Last month the final act in that voiced scenario came true and we are sad about it and concerned about how government will be held accountable now in Johnston county.
Back to that 1882. That was the year the Smithfield Herald came into being and was also the original phone number of the newspaper. All who worked there knew that number did not come up on the external phone rotation unless someone actually dialed that number and therefore it alerted those inside the building even when the building was closed to answer the phone. The insider's line so to speak. 1882-2017, 135 years of good, sometimes great, journalism is in the hospice house. The staffing slowly reduced over the last decade to basically a reporter and the editor. The last long time employee who kept up the proud tradition of excellent editorials and as much local news gathering as they could with severely limited staff is gone. My understanding there is token representation in the second story of the once two floor office they occupied when they moved to Market Street back some years ago.
Yes the move, came something in the late first decade of this century from an office the newspaper had occupied from the early 1960's. The newspaper moved into that office from another downtown location and brought with it serious journalism and a love for community that took root and grew even stronger at South Fourth Street for over 40 years. Those of us who walked those halls and were proud to say we were from The Smithfield Herald at some business calling on customers or some news gathering location must have numbered in the several hundreds. We personally walked the building the day prior to turnover to the new owner and literally grieved for the place as we walked and looked at the hundreds of news and advertising awards that were going to the trash. Add to that the large number of artifacts and such that were going to the trash and we expect we were carrying the sorry of all those other former employees too. It was obvious to us the attitude the management in Raleigh took to the newspaper about the historical artifacts and institutional memory of the place was we do not care.
It did not have to be this way. Indeed when the News and Observer publishing company bought the newspaper in the mid 1980's they kept the same great expectations of high quality newspaper being produced with some additional capital resources from the new parent. We were blessed to join the newspaper in the early 1990's and watched as profits grew at maybe the only newspaper of our size which put out such huge quantities of local news twice a week. See we had no AP news source, but were publishing about 100 pages weekly, which was quite a product for a 15000 circulation twice a week product. There were at times 30 or more preprinted advertising inserts in the two editions too. It was not unusual for the editor to complain about having to fill so much space with local news, but every week every edition his staff got the job done and done well. The entire staff from news, to advertising, to composing, to pressroom, to circulation got the job done and most times it was stellar work too. In the early 2000's the newspaper had grown so much the building needed and did add a large new building for an enlarged press and more storage of inserts and newsprint.
But as the newspaper grew so did competition from the new Internet and other news gathering sources in the county. We personally thought the newspaper and staff were more than up to the challenge and figured the challenge was an opportunity to improve our product, add to our county footprint, and take the competition head on. To our dismay others at the McClatchy end thought differently and thought the newspaper was more suited for a local delivery vehicle of the News and Observer. Those in charge wanted another direction and frankly another advertising leader who would comply and be more cooperative in their efforts. We found ourselves pushed out and the newspaper headed in another direction. There was a sadness leaving the newspaper since our heart was there as was our belief in the future of Johnston County, Smithfield, and the newspapers part in that future.
Over the next decade the owners did indeed go in a different direction, going with free circulation, cutting staff, and of course selling the building. The Smithfield Herald got not only caught up in the new direction of the product, but also in the aggressive cost cutting going on at the new owner The News and Observer parent company McClatchy Company. McClatchy had bought the newspaper in 1996 and in the early 2000's made some unwise moves in buying out another chain at high premium prices right before newspapers took a direct hit from online media. Today the newspaper is basically 6 pages with a few ads, some canned copy, some reprints from the News and Observer, and a part of the overall distribution network of preprinted insert delivery for the Triangle region. Few expense cuts are left and now little local news and no editorials being done in one of the largest population counties in the state.
We personally believe the newspaper under different ownership and direction would still be doing well, still producing quality news, and yes still be profitable. Our belief in the need for local news is still there and even today many community newspapers in the state are surviving and doing well. We find it concerning that in a county of almost 200000 people there is no longer a newspaper of record published in the county seat. Soon the 1882 number will likely die and someone else will be assigned the number, likely some mobile phone. Wonder if they will have any idea what they have and the history of 1882? I doubt it and with this post we say final goodbye. Can one have a funeral for a newspaper? The employees at The Smithfield Herald were family and there seems to be a need for a funeral when a honored member passes on.
Sad but true.
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