What does this newspaper mean to you? Perhaps it’s a source of information, a chronicle of your life’s story within this community, or a way to keep up with your kids or grandkids in school. Perhaps you rely on it for entertainment or just to see what’s going to happen next. Maybe you just read it to make sure you’re not in the obituaries this week or to find out where the best garage sales will be. Maybe its editorial stances or columns rub you the wrong way, but you still read it to be in the know.
A good newspaper can be a great asset to its community. If you look around at small towns that are successful, you will most likely find a vibrant newspaper there as well, covering the news, pushing for progress, and keeping a watchful eye on elected officials.
In my college days, I participated in a study of the economies of 17 communities in the Hill Country and, given my field of study, I picked up a paper in each one if it was available. Without exception, the busiest towns had great newspapers.
One hundred and thirty-six years ago this week, your newspaper got its start with its primary mission to report the happenings in a fledgling colony and to attract more settlers to the area. What began as a monthly publication on the banks of the Salt Fork of the Red River grew and changed – and even moved – with Clarendon, reporting the ups and downs of life in Donley County.
Publishers have come and gone, and the name has changed; but whether you grew up with it as The Donley County Leader, The Clarendon Press, or The Clarendon Enterprise, our community has been fortunate to have a solid newspaper that supports its people as much as its readers and advertisers support it.
Earlier this year, the Enterprise was the focus of a feature by ProNews 7’s Larry Lemmons that talked a lot about the paper’s place as the oldest newspaper in the Texas Panhandle. One of the interviewees for that story talked about the uniqueness of still having a local paper. That comment may have seemed odd to many people, but imagine what it would be like not to have your local paper, not to have someone to count on to cover the Broncos or the Owls, or not to have a place to advertise your local business, or publicize your garage sale.
For people in Wellington and Memphis, that scenario became a reality last week with the merger of those papers, along with the papers in Childress and Hollis, into one new publication called the Red River Sun. It is not the intent or the place of this column to second guess or criticize the owner of those papers for this decision. The Enterprise does however sorrowfully reflect on the loss of three unique Panhandle institutions, each of which have existed for more than 100 years. The Childress Index and the Hall County Herald (long known as the Memphis Democrat) were both founded in the 19th century, and The Wellington Leader, as its nameplate trumpeted, had been “A Builder in Collingsworth County for 105 Years.”
Each of those papers were pioneers of their communities and were at one time or another helmed by legendary newspapermen. Their archives are the repositories of history for their counties, and their pages tell the stories of the people who helped settle this land.
The next few weeks will certainly be a transition time for Memphis and Wellington, and hopefully it will go as smoothly as possible. But there is understandably some trepidation among the people of those towns, and very likely a sense of loss for readers there.
Another long-running paper, The Paducah Post, closed last month with little fanfare, leaving the folks of Cottle County with no local news outlet.
These are not the first closures or consolidations we’ve seen of historic Panhandle papers. More than a year ago, the Motley County Tribune and the Briscoe County News were folded into a new publication, the Caprock Courier. And McLean and Lefors were long ago brought under the umbrella of the Groom News.
We live in a time of change for the newspaper industry. Large papers who lost their focus have gone under, and other papers have slimmed down due to tough economic pressures. The digital revolution brings its own pitfalls and opportunities for newspapers, and today’s young adults consume news very differently from their parents and grandparents.
The Enterprise, by whatever name, has been covering the news since 1878, and we are continually grateful for the support and faith of our readers and advertisers. We will change and adapt as best we can with the times, but we are not going anywhere. More and more of our readers receive our news and columns in some electronic format, and this editorial is the first to have been published digitally before it was printed on paper.
Our commitment, however, remains the same as it was 136 years ago… to provide you with the best news coverage possible and to promote the growth and development of Clarendon and Donley County. We’ve never wavered from that, and we never will.
Clarendon…….You have a special resource in the Enterprise. I am an outsider lookin in and I am so thrilled to have a “lookin glass” that the Enterprise provides. Small communities, such as Clarendon, that have a community newspaper that acts as the “glue” keeping the community informed and together are fortunate beyond imagination.
I have lived in big cities and some that were in between. I never felt a sense of community and acceptance as I have found in Clarendon. I feel blessed that I can live in such a place.
Clarendon……..appreciate what you have. We need to keep our paper local and relevant……it keeps us together.