by Langston Carter

I grew up reading The Free Lance-Star. That paper is the reason I wanted to pursue a career as a journalist; I can still distinctly remember some of the pictures and headlines on the front page from when I was seven years old. It used to provide an independent perspective of local and national issues that impacted the city of Fredericksburg. But unfortunately, it’s also the reason I ultimately chose another career path.

The once proud news outlet has fallen from grace. To call it a local newspaper now would be a stretch. The publication is now owned by Lee Enterprises, a large media company that owns ten other publications in Virginia and dozens of outlets across other states. The company faced controversy in April, 2021, for abruptly firing journalists who worked at The Roanoke Times, a move that demonstrated the callous and careless attitude with which corporate media groups treat their employees and publications.

As I was graduating college, I wanted to pursue a career in journalism, and I applied for a few jobs in the field, but, in the end, seeing how media groups have destroyed local publications like The Free Lance-Star, I knew I would have a more stable career if I explored other options. In recent years, the number of local newspapers has steadily declined, and most of the ones that remain are owned by a handful of large corporations and media groups.

Unfortunately, this was only reinforced when Lee Enterprises quietly fired all but one of its opinion editors in Virginia, a move that will likely bring an end to meaningful local opinion content in their local publications across the state.

When Lee Enterprises purges local journalists, they are firing people who are invested in the communities they write about. They are firing members of those communities, people those communities trust because they are not just journalists. They are also their neighbors. When communities lose those voices, they have nowhere else to turn. Who are they supposed to trust enough to tell them the news? The company that just fired their neighbor? And, as a result, the current distrust in the media only deepens.

What happens when people continue to lose faith in corporate media and every local news outlet is owned by a large corporation? Readers lose their trust in local journalism. Freedom of the press means absolutely nothing if nobody trusts the press. p100

I’m proud to have helped build PW Perspective, one of a handful of local newspapers in Virginia that isn’t owned by a large corporation. Still, in a world dominated by large corporate media groups, it is hard to compete. 

What we’re seeing is a great American tragedy–corporate media groups are strangling local newspapers in broad daylight. They are squeezing them until they are nothing more than empty corporate rags that are quickly losing the trust of the communities that once loved them.
Watching The Free Lance-Star lose its opinion page is a crushing blow to my love of journalism, my community, and local journalism across Virginia. It seems as though we have entered the dark ages of journalism, but maybe we can find solace in the fact that the Dark Ages were followed by the Renaissance.