In this day and age when community newspapers are declining, it’s heartening to see that our region, and specifically our county, is thriving with local news. 

And this year we are all celebrating some pretty big milestones. The River Reporter recently celebrated its 50th anniversary–the weekly that covers the counties of Sullivan, Wayne and Pike and beyond began on December 3, 1975 in Narrowsburg.

Next year will mark the 20th anniversary for the Shawangunk Journal, a weekly print newspaper covering Ellenville, Pine Bush, Kingston and more. We love their tagline: “Actual news, locally grown.”

The Sullivan County Democrat will be celebrating its own watershed moment next year when it turns 135 years old in February, having been owned by the Stabbert family for 99 years.

A recent report from the Local News Initiative found startling stats.

Almost 40% of all local U.S. newspapers have vanished since 2005; more than 130 papers shut down in the past year alone.

This creates “news deserts” across the country. The report found that 212 counties do not have any local news source.

And it’s the rural areas that are hardest hit, while cities have higher access to news. Of the 8,000 news outlets tracked in the Local News Initiative’s database, 65% are located in urban or suburban areas.

However, here in Sullivan County we have three newspapers and multiple radio stations, including public broadcasting channel Radio Catskill, which recently commemorated its 35th anniversary. 

But after the Trump administration this year rescinded more than $1 billion that a previous Congress had allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it leaves radio stations to make tough choices, and rely on donations. 

It’s clear that the news landscape is struggling, and has been in the past two decades with the increasing reliance on the internet and advent of social media. 

But it seems our local news is ready to not just survive–but to thrive.