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The rural weekly newspaper industry rooted in traditional geographically bounded U.S. communities was long thought to have been shielded from industry dilemmas—revenue and circulation—at larger mainstream daily newspapers. However, recent data show a shift in these rural community journalism trends, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Using normative theory and diffusion of innovations, this study examines how rural weekly newspaper publishers perceived, nearly 18 months after the onset of the pandemic, how COVID-19 impacted their newspapers' advertising, news, technology, and community involvement. Survey results reveal short-term and long-term content and financial challenges plague U.S. rural grassroots information sources with circulation less than 3,000—indicating the end of the "golden era" of weekly newspapers. Despite the constraints, publishers remain optimistic and dedicated to their audiences, albeit reluctant to swift change, as they perceive themselves as the only reliable information source for their rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature on community journalism suggests it is worthwhile to theoretically and conceptually examine journalists in small towns. These reporters and editors always wear multiple hats, including news worker, community member, and booster. Therefore, drawing on newsroom observations and interviews, and applying the interpretive lenses of sociology and identity theory, this study examines the self-perceived identities of weekly newspaper news workers, and how those identities influence their news production. Findings across three organizations show that for these journalists, professional identity is intertwined with personal identity as a church member or baseball coach. Simply put, these journalists see themselves as members of the community that their newspaper covers. Their interactions with friends and neighbors are also interactions with sources – and with advertisers. This sense of personal connection further serves as a key motivation to produce meaningful news for their communities, which the author suggests has served as a safeguard to declines in readership for many small-town weekly newspapers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity rates are high in the rural United States. Because small communities often have few health care practitioners, nutrition news in community newspapers may be a useful source of information. This content analysis of a random sample of 164 nutrition stories from 10 community newspapers in the rural West North Central Midwest was guided by concepts from goal-framing theory. Locally generated stories comprised nearly half of the sample, suggesting that nutrition is a salient topic in many rural communities. Hedonic frames related to food enjoyment were twice as frequent as health improvement frames. Results suggest food promotion was the most common topic of nutrition stories, with guidelines for a healthy diet appearing about half as often. Stories about a healthy diet and food promotion were most often written locally. Findings are discussed with recommendations for improvement of community news coverage of nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]