Editorial of June 18, 2026
Paywalls, News Deserts and 218 Years of Original Reporting
This past week, two unrelated yet equally perplexing entries on Facebook sparked our interest. The first, a comment in response to our “Top Headlines: June 11, 2026” graphic, posted on June 11, was “Gotta pay for this?” after hitting the AllOtsego.com paywall. Our reply: “We are a paid newspaper/news website with a 218-year history in Otsego County. It would be great if people would work for free, but sadly they expect to be paid. Please consider giving us a read.”
Now, this is not the first time that question has been posed, nor will it be the last. But it continues to bewilder us. We liken spending the $1.00 for a copy of our newspapers to buying a cup of coffee. No one would expect to enter Baked and Brewed Cafe, or Stagecoach Coffee, for instance, and walk out without paying for their morning cup of joe. Why, then, would anyone think coverage of local news would be free?
There are many expenses associated with producing “The Freeman’s Journal,” “Hometown Oneonta” and AllOtsego.com, just as with any business—employee salaries, taxes, printing, mailing and delivery expenses, computers, software, electric, Internet, etc. Running an independent, locally-owned media outlet comes at a cost. So, please do consider giving us a read. And yes, ya gotta pay.
The second post was a real head-scratcher. It read: “I’m trying to get a handle on whether folks in the Cooperstown region would be supportive of having a new local news outlet whose strength is original reporting. What ingredients would you like to see in local news reporting?” The author went on to say that “our region has become a news desert.” He wants to “construct a respectable news outlet tackling major issues without fear or favor.”
A news desert is defined as a geographic community—either rural or urban—that lacks any credible, original source of local journalism. According to the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as newspapers shutter due to corporate consolidation and digital shifts, residents in these areas lose access to grassroots reporting on local government, education, and community events.
According to officials at UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, there has been a “significant diminishment in quality and quantity of news that occurs as a result of financial constraints on the industry and the rise of newspapers owned by investment entities, such as hedge funds and private equity firms. Many newspapers have become ghosts of their former selves, both in terms of the quality and quantity of their editorial content and the reach of their readership.”
At present, there are currently 212 counties in the U.S. that have no local news outlets at all. Those are the news deserts. More than half of the nation’s 3,143 counties have only a single remaining local news source. That is not the case here in Otsego County, where this 218-year-old outlet continues to buck the trends and where there is also still a “daily” news source, though it only prints three days a week and is not locally owned.
The CISLM hit the nail on the head, however. Financial constraints on the industry do negatively impact quality, quantity and reach. Also impacting the finances of local newsrooms is lack of support from the community in the form of advertising dollars. Facebook and other forms of social media provide businesses and organizations a platform for advertising their goods and services at no charge. Subsequently, advertising in hard-copy newspapers and online outlets is considered by many to be no longer necessary.
In 2005, the masthead of “The Freeman’s Journal” included a general manager, an editor, a sports reporter, a production assistant and three sales associates. In 2019, the masthead of “Hometown Oneonta” lists an editor/publisher, advertising director/general manager, managing editor, business manager, office manager, reporter, photographer, an advertising consultant and a graphic designer. Today, we have a general manager who does double duty as the senior editor, writes and reports, and is the graphic designer, one advertising sales director, an office manager and one reporter.
Despite the drastic downsizing in staff, we beg to differ regarding any “dearth” of original reporting and wonder if the individual making that criticism even reads our content. Last week’s byline articles included original reporting on the arrest of an Otsego County Sheriff’s Office employee, a controversial housing development proposal for the Towns of Otsego and Springfield, resident opinions on changes to the Village of Cooperstown’s boating law, relocation of the Baked and Brewed Cafe to Main Street Oneonta, and this weekend’s Cherry Valley Outdoor Games, among others.
We would argue that Otsego County is not yet a news desert, and we stand by our original reporting. Since the fall of 2022, after a brief dry spell, our content has continued to improve and expand. Byline articles and original reporting continue to increase, thanks in part to our work with SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY Institute for Local News. In fact, our new staff writer, Joshua Youngquist, is a product of that partnership. We are fortunate to have a number of freelance reporters to supplement the work of that lone full-time reporter, and readers that freely share their opinions. The “daily” paper, which is not locally owned, has at least one good investigative reporter. We know, because we had him first. And, as our reporting—and our editorials and some columns—will clearly show, we operate without “fear or favor.”
Through 218 years of ups and downs, feast or famine, highs and lows, ebbs and flows, AllOtsego and its affiliates have stood the test of time as a credible, original source of local journalism. The answer to more original reporting is not another news outlet. It is supporting the ones you are lucky enough to already have—through advertising dollars, sponsorships, subscriptions—before they are lost to that news desert, creeping ever closer. Just imagine what we could accomplish with two reporters…
