Walt Potter, who works with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute to explore the future of community newspapers, is visiting newspapers in Missouri during the spring of 2015 as part of what’s known informally as The Potter Listening Tour. In this series of posts, Potter will try to uncover some of the new realities for community publishers and editors and highlight some of the opportunities and challenges they face.

Potter established the Missouri School of Journalism’s Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism in 2010 to help journalists in small communities make the transition from print to new means of communication. The fund supports a series of conferences that connects new technology experts from RJI and elsewhere with small-town newspaper people.