Since the Richmond News Review is all about covering news and opinion happening in the area, we thought it would be useful to take a look at what sources of news there are for Richmond, and how they operate. We already discussed whether or not the RNR itself is a source of news, so we'll leave ourselves out of this inventory.

First, we have the biggest name in local news, the Palladium-Item newspaper. It's a daily, with an expanded edition on Sundays, and has a paid circulation of about 17,000 per day during the week, and around 21,000 on Sunday. The paper is owned by the Gannett Corporation, an international corporation that is the largest newspaper group in the US with 90 daily newspapers, 23 television stations, 130 websites, and more than 52,000 employees. As Jason Truitt mentioned in our interview with him a few weeks ago, the Pal-Item has about 4 full time reporters and 2 sports reporters, in addition to their editor, layout and circulation staff. You can read most of the paper's content on their website (including some part of their archive), or you can receive it in your home for anywhere from $6.50 to $14 per month. The Pal-Item's principles state that they are committed to "Seeking and reporting the truth in a truthful way," "Serving the public interest," "Exercising fair play," "Maintaining independence," and "Acting with integrity."

As far as we know, there are only two other news sources in town that come remotely close to being a similar kind of news-gathering entity:

Earlier this year, the Kicks 96 radio station launched its video news service, a daily clip that's several minutes long, highlighting around 3-4 top stories from that day. The station formerly posted written news stories on its site, and has now gone entirely to this video-based format. The clips themselves are usually the two news anchors (who are also portrayed as the primary news gatherers) sitting in front a blue-screened-in "newsroom" background, introducing each story before cutting to a video clip. While the stories are generally quite similar to the information available in the Palladium-Item, they have on occasion scooped the Pal-Item and/or provided additional information on a story that the Palladium chooses not to include. The station is owned by the Brewer Broadcasting Group, which states on their website's front page that they "offer an array of distinctive Radio formats designed to provide advertisers with maximum reach and efficiency in the communities we serve." The service is free and so presumably revenue from the numerous ads surrounding the video player help to pay for the production costs. As of this writing, there was no archive of past news, but the clips are regularly shown on WCTV, the local community access television station. Circulation/viewership numbers are also not publicly available.

The Earlham Word is the only other local source that has a staff of reporters and columnists producing a regular publication (and even then, it's somewhat seasonable based on Earlham's academic calendar). The paper typically has stories and editorials related to life on campus and so its circulation is fairly small, but occasionally you can find a different perspective about Richmond happenings, life in the midwest and related topics. The paper is free to members of the Earlham community, and its archives go back to September of 1997. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll note that in the 1990s I was the opinion editor for The Word, and helped to create the online version of the paper.

Other than those three, there aren't a whole lot of other local options - see the WayNet.org list of local news sources. The "Centerville Area News" website does appear to have some original reporting, but the format of the page appears to be geared toward promoting Centerville businesses and residents, as opposed to providing some sort of traditional journalistic publication about the area.

And then of course there's the grapevine. So much information in this community seems to travel by word of mouth and smaller groups of people communicating with each other about goings on (sometimes called "gossip"). It's a perfectly fine way for information to spread, but also includes the dangers of inaccuracies, bias and errors of omission.

So...how does all that add up for you? A daily newspaper, a daily video clip, a weekly student-run newspaper, and your own friends and family...is that enough coverage for a town this size? Does the quality of the content meet your needs? Are we missing any news sources in this list? Tell us what you think, and what kinds of things could be improved about local news resources in Richmond and Wayne County.