‘Tar Heel Bus Tour’ stop spotlights rural news solutions

Posted Monday, October 23, 2023 1:30 pm

Staff | Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media

Every day, Justin Smith and Les High work through the challenges and opportunities of providing high-quality, local news and information to their rural community. Recently, the two news publishers stood before a busload of 40 faculty and staff from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and tried to describe what it’s like.

“Today was kind of intense — every press day is,” Justin Smith, publisher and editor of News Reporter, told the crowd.

Just before 11 a.m., a few hours before the weekly paper was due to the printer, one of the largest employers in Columbus County announced they were going to cut about a third of its workforce. The News Reporter team sprang into action, with a quick story for the web and a longer one on a new front page.

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‘Tar Heel Bus Tour’ stop spotlights rural news solutions

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