STAMFORD – April 9 is being observed nationwide as Local News Day, a day commemorating the important role that local news plays in American democracy and everyday life – strengthening our communities, keeping us informed, and holding leaders accountable.
Small, independent newspapers like The Mountain Eagle provide their communities with an immeasurable resource. Local news tells the stories that actually shape daily life: what’s happening in neighborhood schools, town board sessions, new businesses opening on Main Street, area zoning and housing, decisions affecting residents’ taxes, public safety and quality of life issues, elections and civic participation. A strong local press helps the community understand itself and stay connected.
SUNY Oneonta and the OnNY Community Media Lab has been proud to partner with The Mountain Eagle for the past year. As part of a statewide initiative called the SUNY Institute for Local News, student journalists have been regularly covering news about the Catskills region for this newspaper, in the process developing hands-on reporting, writing, and storytelling skills and learning how to make a meaningful impact on their communities.
To celebrate Local News Day and our partnership with The Mountain Eagle, SUNY Oneonta student reporter Julia DelPozzo interviewed The Mountain Eagle’s David Avitabile about the importance of local news reporting and his own history with this newspaper.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Can you talk a bit about your career and your work at The Mountain Eagle?
My son Matthew owns the paper. I’ve actually worked at the Mountain Eagle three times. I started there in 1986 for two years, ‘86 and ‘87. Then I worked there ‘89 through ’93. And now I have worked there from 2017 to today.
What do you enjoy most about the work of journalism?
I really enjoy covering an area that I live in. You feel invested in the community. I’ve always felt that I’ve done a service. You go to meetings and events that maybe a lot of people don’t go to, and [your reporting] is how they find out about them. I especially enjoyed when my kids were in school, going to school events and taking pictures.
What is the importance of local news and smaller newspapers to the community?
A lot of larger papers have gone by the wayside or really shrunk their product because of news being instantaneous on the internet. So, it’s really important for local news that most people can’t get from the internet, like local meetings and local events. A lot of people, unfortunately, take Facebook as a news source, but obviously it’s not a news source and a lot of it’s just rumors. Especially for meetings and events, it’s important because when you can go to a meeting [you are getting] information from a superintendent, a supervisor, an official person – as opposed to just, ‘Oh, I heard this.’
What are some of the challenges that local news faces today? And how do papers like the Mountain Eagle continue to survive through those challenges?
I think the biggest problem we have had in the last 15 years is how many people don’t go to newspapers for their news source; they’ll go to the internet or to Facebook. So they’re just not buying the paper. And it’s hard to get younger people into a habit of buying newspapers as a routine. Also, it’s harder [now] to get advertising for a newspaper. The lifeblood of a newspaper, as in revenue, is really from advertising. I mean, the cover price that you charge for a newspaper – a dollar or a dollar-fifty, whatever – that just goes to cover the printing costs, which are always increasing. Any revenue you’re going to make on a paper is going to come from your advertising. And that is getting more and more difficult. It’s also difficult to find people to work in advertising [sales] because that’s a side of business where you ask for an ad, and people don’t like to be told ‘no,’ and that’s what you get a lot of the time. It’s always easier to find people to write, but very few people want to sell ads.
That’s interesting. I would never have guessed that.
Yeah, unfortunately, we’ve had a very tough time trying to find advertising people It involves a lot of work, a lot of labor getting out there and going to businesses [door-to-door]. And who wants to be told ‘no’ – even by someone you know [personally], you know?
The theme of Local News Day is connecting communities. What is one thing you wish your readers knew about the work that goes into every edition of the paper?
I’ll preface it by saying a lot of things now, in this electronic age, are a lot easier than, let’s say, 35 years ago. I started with [landline] phones and film cameras and an electric typewriter. Originally when I worked for The Mount Eagle [in the 1980s], you would have to actually have the pages set. Now my son just does it on his laptop – he sends it [online] to the printer and it’s all done. But to the readers: a lot of people want us to print rumors, like ‘did you hear so-and-so got arrested?’ [It’s important that community members understand that] you have to be sure of your source. You have to be sure that something’s true before you can print it. You can post anything you want on Facebook. But for a newspaper, you have to make sure it’s true or you can be sued for libel. And I think that’s the most important thing: as a newspaper person and for a newspaper, you have to make sure your source is credible and your information is correct before you can print it.
Right. You can only publish the facts.
Exactly.
What is unique about covering news in small communities like the towns and villages in your coverage area?
I think the thing that’s most unique is that a lot of times when you do a story, whether it’s good or bad, a lot of times you’ll know the person involved. And that’s not always a good thing because sometimes you could be writing a story where someone is arrested, and you might know that person personally or you might know some of the people hurt personally, the victims. I think that’s very different from, let’s say, a big city where there are so many people [that you are] most likely not going to know anyone involved. And I think also for small community, especially when you live in it, it affects you also. Since I’ve lived in Middleburgh, [we’ve had] at least two major floods. And it’s hard, where it’s affected the whole community, including myself. You got to try to balance, you know, saving or working on your home while still trying to be a reporter and getting information [out to the community]. In 2011, we had a major flood here in the Schoharie Valley, and there was a travel ban for a week because people weren’t supposed to be on the roads, but I still traveled to work [to report on the community].
That’s interesting: you live in the community and the community’s being destroyed by these floods, yet you have to go out and report on it. That’s tough work.
Yeah, and that’s what you do when you live in a small community and report on it too. That’s what makes it very rewarding because then you’re in it and invested in it.
This story was created by student reporters through the OnNY Community Media Lab, a program of SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY Institute for Local News.
