The Buzz 08.05.21

FREE SPEECH

For years, there’s been a trend of consolidation of newspapers by large ownership conglomerates. And the economic challenges facing small newsrooms were exacerbated by the pandemic, with Poynter reporting an increase in closures and in mergers. But a July 26 report from the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism shows a new and hopeful trend: Newspapers reverting back to local ownership. The company Gannett (which in 2019 merged with GateHouse, combining the county’s two largest newspaper chains; locally, Gannett owns The Salinas Californian) has recently sold at least 23 small newspapers in 10 states – including California, Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Massachusetts – to local owners. “Gannett’s strategy appears to be focused on its bigger properties, with some smaller ones up for sale,” according to the Local News Initiative piece. “Amid the doom and gloom in some sectors of the local news industry, people need to remember that there’s money to be made.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“This would be considered a crime against humanity today.” - Joe Aki Ouye, a Pacific Grove artist and survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. Ouye speaks on Saturday, Aug. 7 in a Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance Day event (read Face to Face story).

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

The pandemic ushered in the end of the nonprofit Central Coast Quality of Life Programs, which spent a decade helping more than 400 people living with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease annually. Out of the ashes rose a new organization focused on Monterey County, MS Monterey, to help dozens of people left without resources after CCQLP shuttered. This week the group is celebrating its first anniversary on Aug. 7. Since launching, the group has offered self-care support, art classes, pool classes and socials. Executive Director Bette Nee-Williams says the group of people with MS came together for “community, education and physical fitness for others dealing with MS” with the goal of improving the quality of life for individuals, families and caregivers. Nonprofit Health Projects Center stepped up as the group’s fiscal sponsor, allowing MS Monterey to accept donations.

GREAT:

The relocation of a government office may not sound like news, but in the case of District 3’s office moving from Salinas to Greenfield, it’s great news for constituents to have a bricks-and-mortar place closer to home. County Supervisor Chris Lopez relocated the South County district’s office to the Greenfield Civic Center (599 El Camino Real) fulfilling one of his campaign commitments to make it easier to meet with constituents. (Lopez’s original plan was to locate the District 3 office in the Walnut Avenue shopping center, but that process stalled; this location is a Plan B.) The office includes a conference room and cubicles for future interns. The office will be decorated with photographs and paintings by local South County artists who participated in the first “We are Southern Monterey County” contest. After a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 16, Lopez said, “We are home.”