HCTA Needs More Local News

Dear Editor,

I would like to express my extreme displeasure with the direction that the Holmes County Advertiser seems to be going. It is become apparent to me that the Advertiser is no longer a local, hometown newspaper. I have noticed this for quite some time, but it became blatantly obvious to me in the September 7, 2011 issue. In the sports page of this edition, there was only one article related to Holmes County. There were three articles about college football and one article about the Chipley-Vernon football came. There was not one mention of the Bonifay-Blountstown football game the previous Friday night. This was a great win for the Blue Devils and their new coach. I attended the game and was impressed by the local turnout. I look to the Advertiser to bring me local news from the county, not news that I have seen repeatedly on ESPN or on the Internet. A good local sports writer would cover all of the schools in the county, as they have all have some sort of sporting events going on this time of year.  I noticed that the advertisements in the paper are paid for by local business, and many of these business owners have family and friends involved in local sports and other activities.

When you great-great grandfather, W.D. Williams, founded the Holmes County Advertiser in 1882, his stated purpose was to publish the paper primarily in the interest of Holmes County development. Every effort was made to cover local news, and the citizens felt like they had a “local” paper. His descendants who owned and managed the paper throughout three subsequent generations worked constantly to carry out that purpose until they sold the paper in 1981. Some of the editors who came along afterwards did a good job of promoting the county and covering local news. However, ever since the paper was purchased by the Freedom Newspapers and merged with the Washington County paper, Holmes County has, for the most part, found itself without a “local” paper. No longer is the paper focusing very much at all on Holmes County, but rather more on national news culled from the Panama City News Herald and is old news by the time it appears in the Advertiser. Most weeks, readers see more “fillers” of old national news and coverage of Washington County than it does news of Holmes County. I understand that since the merger you have to cover both counties, but it seems to me that Holmes County does not get its fair share of coverage.

It appears to me that you would be well served, and probably more successful, if you would focus your attention back to the people of Holmes County and cover events that matter to them, not news that is readily available all over the Internet and national newscasts.

Sincerely,

Stephen D. Smith
Panama City
HCHS Class of 1989