The Media

The view from Canton

By TOM LITTLEWOOD

RESIDENTS of small towns in Illinois think nothing of driving long distances to metropolitan shopping malls and daily jobs. All this moving around, not to mention the nearly universal exposure to the video version of reality, has broadened the horizons of life in the small town; and it has changed the role of the community newspaper.

Lacking the time, money or inclination to buy more than one daily newspaper, readers of small town papers are demanding more than a town bulletin board. They want a complete newspaper.

Recently, the Inland Daily Press Association chose Canton in Fulton County as one of the test sites for a study of reader preferences in smaller cities. Canton (population 14,772) is within an hour's drive of the shopping centers and the big Caterpillar plant south of Peoria. For a daily, with a circulation of 9,500, Canton's newspaper — the Ledger — perches on the edge of economic viability.

The reason for the continued existence of the Ledger is clear. The eight-member editorial staff has won national prizes for the thoroughness of its local coverage. The Ledger tells the people of Canton most of what they need to know about local and regional affairs.

But the survey conducted by the market research firm of Yankelovich, Skelly and White confirmed what Ledger managing editor Joe Hoeddinghaus already sensed: today's more aware audience would like more national and international news.

One of those interviewed had this request: "I want the paper to make sense out of what I heard on television the night before. Even if I catch the names, I don't know much about them. The local paper should help me out on that."

This is a problem for Hoeddinghaus and his staff. The Ledger does not have the space or the resources for much outside news. Dear Abby, Heloise and Sidney Harris are its only syndicated columnists.

Emotionally attached as they are to their local papers, small town residents are nevertheless drawn to the more comprehensive news offerings of nearby metro papers. "For a good number of these people," the report said, "the small town is where they live, but the closest big city is very much a part of their lives."

The third largest selling periodical in Fulton County (the Ledger is first, TV Guide a surprisingly strong second) is the Peoria Journal Star with about 4,000 circulation in the county. Although the Journal Star prints far less national and international news than, say, the New York Times, the Peoria paper runs considerably more than does the Canton Ledger.

"The survey is trying to tell us we should give everybody everything," Hoeddinghaus said, and he went on to understate the obvious: "Small as we are, that's hard to do."

Hoeddinghaus agreed with the report's comment that editors everywhere tend to be "locked into traditionally heavy governmental and political coverage." But the Ledger tries mightily to spell out the relevance of that news. Thus, when the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in March that public utilities had overpaid property taxes, the Canton paper immediately explored the meaning for area school districts.

The editor's task is not made any easier by the Yankelovich finding that readers also expect more "good news," more "escape" stories and more news of professional sports.

The Ledger was already making a deliberate effort to lighten its product by carrying more feature stories. "Most hard news is bad news," Hoeddinghaus said, "and too much of it can leave a bad taste in the community.

"Everybody, and I mean everybody, fishes in Fulton county, so we're sponsoring a fishing contest this summer," he said. Even though the paper already devotes a full page every Monday to bowling news (there are 4,500 area bowling league members), the editor was surprised to hear requests for more bowling news.

There are seven high schools in the county, all with athletic teams and avid followers, but the sports editor is trying to find more room for the Cubs, Sox, Bears, Bulls and others.

Unlike most downstate newspapers which keep down their legal fees by practicing what has been called "defensive journalism," the Ledger sometimes engages in investigative reporting. This activity is not without its risks in a small town where the editors may drink coffee at the same counter with the targets of a crusade.

The Yankelovich study suggested that small town readers are likely to be ambivalent about investigative reporting, and Hoeddinghaus knows why. When the Ledger won a national award last fall for its investigation of irregularities in a township road commissioner's financial dealings, the local reaction was at first one of pride that "ours is a newspaper with hair on its chest." But then the story took a tragic turn when one of the figures in the scandal committed suicide by burning himself to death. The pall of that horrible aftermath still hangs over Canton, and the Ledger gave only minimal attention to the last chapter of the story in the courts. The award on the office wall doesn't shine as brightly now.

Small-town editors face an impossible dilemma. At times their readers want a more aggressive, more worldly wise journalism. With all the advances in communications technology, however, the small-town paper's only reason for being is its closeness to the community and the people who live there. □

34/June 1981/Illinois Issues