Community journalism has long been a part of the lifeblood of America,
but never have the stakes been so high for the people behind it.
In Beacons in the Darkness, award-winning journalist Dave Hoekstra
interviews the people trying to keep the lights on at community
newspapers across the country amid buyouts, declining revenues, fake
news, and a pandemic. This book is not another account of the death of
local journalism--but rather a celebration of the community ties,
perseverance, and empathy that's demonstrated in community newsrooms
from Hillsboro, Illinois, to Charleston, South Carolina, to Marfa,
Texas.
Hoekstra recounts the sometimes-scandalous but always-industrious
stories of the families who built these newspapers and passed them down
through generations. Modern publishers and owners describe in their own
words their struggles and experiments to stay alive in the digital age,
not just for their businesses and their families but also for the
communities they serve and the neighbors whose stories they tell in
their reporting. Beacons in the Darkness provides an intimate view
inside the organizations that still publish photos of the local bowling
league and the outlandishly large mushrooms on the edge of town, leaving
you with a rekindled fondness for your own community paper--and a
renewed appreciation of what we all stand to lose without one.
