MINEOLA, Texas — Phil and Lesa Main purchased the Wooden County Monitor in 2019, realizing they’d proceed a convention that dated again to the late 1800s.

The Monitor is the small city newspaper of Mineola and surrounding areas. It has a circulation of 1,500 and it covers roughly 300 sq. miles.

“You recognize the previous New York Instances saying, ‘All of the information match to print?’ Ours is the other, ‘all of the information that matches we print,'” mentioned Phil.

Phil has spent 44 years in information and their operation is among the final beacons of true group journalism. Small-town newspapers are dropping subscribers by the month. 

On the Monitor, Phil clearly wears many hats. Lesa does the enterprise facet and a few graphics work, whereas their son, Sam, does pictures and digital and infrequently writes. Additionally they have a few freelance writers together with an workplace workers member. Each particular person performs an important function in placing the Thursday paper collectively.

“He is the listener, I am the talker,” mentioned Lesa. “What he can do, I can not do. What I do, he cannot do. Not very nicely.” 

Phil went to the College of Texas and got here again with a historical past diploma. He noticed an advert within the morning paper the place a publication was searching for a reporter again within the late Nineteen Seventies. The household has a ardour for information and feels it is their civic obligation to tell and educate the general public.

“I would slightly work for me than someone else,” Phil mentioned.

Now he paperwork historical past for the weekly Thursday paper. On the schedule weekly is a full slate of metropolis, college board, chamber conferences, weekend occasions, and highschool sports activities.

“They’ve provide you with the time period ‘information deserts.’ Communities with out papers in any respect and what you are seeing is civic engagement goes down and voter turnout goes down,” mentioned Phil.

Right here and in every single place, subscriptions are happening for print. They’re preventing, like many, to maintain the paper alive for an viewers determined for native information. 

A Pew Analysis examine reveals total weekday circulation is down 40% since 2015. On the similar time, complete Sunday circulation has fallen 45% since 2015. 

“It is the social media that comes alongside, the recession that comes alongside, it is the pandemic that comes alongside. All of them take a chunk!” mentioned Phil.

The truth is Phil and Lesa do need to retire quickly. What which means for the paper is unknown. In 2022, the paper gained 4 awards from the Texas Press Affiliation. The Monitor was awarded first place in promoting and public discover.