News organizations across southwestern Pennsylvania work together to help each other survive
News organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania are coming together to help each other survive.
When a would-be assassin shot and wounded then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2024, it fell to the staff of the Butler Eagle not only to cover the biggest story in the world but also to keep its readers informed about the local impacts on things like traffic and the suspension of municipal services.
"We take a very local approach to things," interim managing editor Tracy Leturgey said. "Even in a crisis like that, we're always thinking always back to, 'OK, how does that affect Butler County?'"
The newspaper's six news reporters have the daunting task of covering 57 municipalities and nine school districts, watching the public purse, and holding elected officials accountable in ways larger news organizations can't.
"The New York Times and The Washington Post aren't getting down to the hyper-local level of each municipality that we're trying to get to here," reporter Matthew Glover said.
But like most newspapers, the Butler Eagle struggles to stay afloat. Faced with declining ad revenues, falling circulation, and competition from social media, about 40 percent of America's newspapers have folded in the past two decades.
And the carnage is even higher in the more rural areas, which are increasingly becoming so-called news deserts, leaving people to navigate the rumor mill on the internet. And while the Tribune Review, and for now the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also cover Butler County, the Butler Eagle's loyal readers depend on its reliable information.
"We've had people actually say to us on our own social media pages that they don't believe it until they see it in the Eagle," Tammy Shouey, publisher, said.
As news organizations contend with headwinds, continuing to provide the people of southwestern Pennsylvania with responsible journalism is the impetus behind the Pittsburgh Media Partnership — a project of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University.
It's a collaboration of more than 40 local news operations. Small newspapers like the Eagle and larger news organizations like the Post-Gazette, the Tribune Review and KDKA-TV. The partnership has its own newsroom producing stories for the news outlet to use, and the members meet about sharing resources and finding other solutions to their economic challenges.
"We all face certain challenges together, and I think talking about them, becoming a community, having training, finding common solutions is one thing that we can't necessarily do alone," said Kimberley Palmiero of the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.
The Butler Eagle is a family-owned newspaper whose roots stretch back more than two centuries, but its future has never been more precarious. It is better positioned than some others because the business owns billboards and its own printing press, which generates revenue by printing circulars and other papers.
But while newspapers used to be fierce competitors, Shouey is looking to the partnership to help each other weather the storm.
"We're all in survival mode," she said. "So, we want to help each other."
By working together instead of in competition, local news organizations hope to fill the void, holding communities together with good, reliable journalism.