Fielder's Choice

A 104-year-old business is closing this week in Cleveland (that's Mississippi), and it breaks my heart.

Lee Walls, president and CEO of Walls Newspapers and owner of The Bolivar Commercial, recently announced the newspaper would cease publication and operations at the end of April.

He cited several reasons, going back to the recession of 2008-2009. He also said social media has played a huge role in the newspaper's decline.

"Facebook, and social media in general, have done more to harm community newspapers than the internet as a whole. With social media, a user can choose to have a `news' feed of legitimate stories, incorrect stories, hateful rhetoric, harmful gossip and defamatory commentary. As if that's not enough, they can have all of that in the form of video or text. You get all of that by simply giving up your personal data and privacy, no money required," Walls said.

"We don't have the option to compete against that business model because we are held to a higher standard. Based on very objective statistics, it is clear that people are choosing social media and to give up their privacy, over community journalism."

Mississippi newspapers, all of them, are dear to me.

I moved to this great state in 1986, and immediately became involved in the Mississippi Press Association.

A few years later I was blessed to be nominated to serve on the MPA Board of Directors and gladly accepted. Those years, including the presidency, were some of the best of my life. That's because of the knowledge gained from the best in the business, the service to statewide journalism and the wonderful friendships gained along the way.

Through MPA, I got to meet Norman Van Liew and Mark Williams, two men who were the heart and soul of The Bolivar Commercial over the years. Their leadership was top notch ­ period. I learned from them. They left their mark on community journalism in Cleveland and Bolivar County but also Mississippi as a whole.

And they also poured their hearts into their community. That's what we do as community newspapers folks.

I was blessed to work at The Itawamba County Times when I first moved to Mississippi. Its slogan was "The Only Newspaper In The World That Cares Anything About Itawamba County."

As Chris Allen Baker wrote in a Letter to the Editor to The Bolivar Commercial about the closure ­ "That can be said about any other local newspaper in any community.

Baker also wrote, "When you choose to not support your local newspaper both financially and in reading, you can eventually lose it. Facebook and other social media do not care about the things that your local newspaper cares about in your community.

"Your paper cares about your births, your deaths, your weddings and engagements, your local city and school board meetings, the quality and activities of your schools, your garden clubs and other civic clubs, your county operations, your sports, and so much more and all things in between."

Thank you for advertising in and reading your South Reporter. We love what we do; we love our community.