Hyperlocal

to her hometown to keep the family in the family business. Smith is gradually learning more of the business, and her presence gives Downs something she hasn’t had a lot of since 2019 — a peace of mind. Downs’ youngest daughter, Jessica Smith, is headed off to college this fall, but plans to work remotely to continue helping publish the newspaper each week. She’s worked for newspaper for the past three years and helped start the Independent two years ago.

Downs continues to fight in an industry in which most people are fleeing. The Boston Globe recently noted the newspaper industry has averaged more than 1,000 job losses a month for several years, decimating the ranks of journalists and leaving notable institutions like city councils and school boards uncovered.

Downs said it’s the power of local community support and local ownership which has helped her thrive. She said that she’s able to provide the community with what it wants — news of birthdays and anniversaries along with keeping a watchful eye on city and county government.

And, she was able to rebuild the entire 1,450 subscriber base in just two years, proof that there is true hunger for the news.

On her desk, between the keyboard and the monitor, sits a pile of yellow office sticky notes. They are messages she’s received from people who are trying to find information contained somewhere in the archives of The Herald-News. For several years, she has had to disappoint many of them by saying she couldn’t get to the archives — still locked away in a building she no longer had access to. But, a couple of weeks ago, when she got back in, got power restored, she found the back editions, piled behind boxes of clutter.

“Now I have access, we’re just waiting until we can go through them,” Downs said.

Somewhere floating around the office is a picture of a 3-year-old Downs who crawled inside a paper box to take a nap as her father, who died several years ago, worked the presses to put out a paper.

“I think he’d be satisfied,” Downs said of the outcome. “He’d be happy that the good ones won.”

There’s new flooring, new wiring, new bathroom fixtures — the same structure, but upgraded.

“We’ve got it nice and the way it should be,” Downs said.

Her fight for the paper has left her more dedicated to the community.

“You know, you do what you have to do to keep it going and so many people have said that they’re proud of me and want to keep it going. They’ve asked, ‘What can we do to help?’” The answer is usually a form of just keep doing what you’re doing — advertise, read, subscribe. And though the industry has been brutal, Downs remains upbeat and confident for the future.

“Hyperlocal news is still important to communities. Very rarely would you get a TV station to come and do a story in a rural area that’s not attached to a larger community,” Downs said. “The community is not directly served, but the residents want to know who is doing what, and that’s important to them. They’re not going to get it from TV, but only from a local newspaper.”

Now, a local newspaper that has the next generation working at it.

“It makes me take a sigh of relief that this is interesting to the next generation,” Downs said. “That she’s here and invested in the community and will be ready to take it over when I retire in 20 years.”

So much from the name to the staff to location has changed, including moving out of offices twice. Still, putting the paper out from the building across the street from the fire station wasn’t odd or painful, even though the battle to keep the paper took several years.

“It feels like home,” Downs said. “Now, I know I can work for its future.”

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