Community newspapers

Not all is doom and gloom in the media world. Consider this piece by Chris Stadelman, who went from being the managing editor of a daily, and later as a reporter for the AP, to being an owner and operator of the Parsons Advocate in West Virginia:

I had a choice when I left both Charleston and AP, something many mid-career journalists don't have right now. Reading the list of cutbacks on Romenesko every morning reminds me of the old Monty Python scene: "Bring out your dead, bring out your dead."

Community newspapers, especially weeklies in rural markets, are like the defiant character: "I'm not dead yet!" The ad bases are stable, the readers dedicated, the future solid if not spectacular.