When initiating this news blog in January of 2012, local news was in trouble at that time.  My thoughts at the time were this – I would write a local news blog in Fishers until the local news drought sorts itself out, then I can go back and genuinely retire.

Anyone remotely following the local news scene is aware that nothing has been sorted out.  In fact, the local news situation, with a few notable exceptions, is much worse today compared to January of 2012.

The past week was not a good one for local news in this area,  First, Urban One, the company that is in the process of purchasing the Emmis Broadcasting stations in Indianapolis, announced that they were letting Eric Berman go.  Eric was the dean of the Statehouse press corps.  His institutional knowledge about Indiana state government is well known and his pink slip is a loss for all of us consuming news of state-wide interest.

Eric says he’s looking for his next chapter in life and I would hope more than one company would latch on to his journalistic talents.  This is a sad time for Indiana journalism if Eric is no longer reporting.

Then, there is Gannett, owner of a long list of Indiana newspapers, including the state’s largest, The Indianapolis Star.  Gannett is a profitable company with a CEO that earns at least $7 million per year, based on a number of news reports.  Yet, Gannett’s profits are down, mostly because the company is having trouble on the business side of the house.

The drop in profits wasn’t because of anything journalists did, yet they are paying the price.

The good news at the Star is that there will be no layoffs there.  But that is only because there are a number of unfilled openings on the news side of the operation and Gannett simply will not fill the open positions.  Again, that will cut into the news product you will find at the Star.

However, a number of smaller Gannett local newspapers across the state of Indiana are issuing pink slips to a number of reporters, resulting in less news coverage.

I want to repeat that I always encourage everyone to subscribe to your local media outlets.  That is because the remaining journalists at these news operations need to be supported.  Without subscribers, the situation only worsens,

I have tried to end this blog at least twice.  The first time, I made no public announcement about it and was persuaded by key people in Fishers I should continue the blog.

In 2020, I publicly announced the end of the blog.  Then, COVID hit so I promised to continue a little longer.  But I ended up with a pretty bad case of COVID.  I wasn’t hospitalized but it was so bad I couldn’t do much of anything due to a lack of energy.

That bout of COVID game me more time to think and reflect.  Once recovered, I decided to continue the blog, after all that thought and reflection.  It was not an easy decision.

I am not as young as I used to be.  I find myself making more errors.  Thanks to you, my readers, for pointing out my flubs so I can correct them.

There is some hope for local news in some corners,  For example, a nonprofit group is establishing news operations in statehouses across the nation,  The Capitol Chronicle has been in operation a few weeks, part of that nonprofit effort, and doing good work so far.

I sincerely hope a solution is found the the local news crisis.  I will soon celebrate my 71st birthday.  My health is relatively good now, but I have had a couple of health scares within the last two years.  I plan on writing this blog and producing podcasts as long as my health holds out.

I am just a volunteer that was once a newsy before changing careers and retiring.  Fishers needs an institution, for-profit or not-for-profit, that can carry on the coverage of local news in a place like Fishers.

Let’s see if the entrepreneurs of Fishers can come up with a solution.