Potter Digital Ambassadors visit five weekly newspapers to boost outlets’ multimedia, social media

The Potter Digital Ambassadors program recently paired five college journalism students with rural Missouri newspapers to help implement multimedia and social media strategies. This was the inaugural year of the program, which is underwritten by Missouri School of Journalism alumnus and newspaper editor Walt Potter. The ambassadors, all from the Missouri School of Journalism, had … Continued

Small paper, small city undergoing big changes in Virginia

For a century, the Culpeper Star-Exponent — whose predecessors date to 1881 — served a small community that changed relatively little. Today, the newspaper is dealing with rapid change in its central Virginia market. Since 1980, Culpeper County has more than doubled its population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, mostly with commuters to the … Continued

Serving Hispanic readers is a matter of trust

A recent issue of Nuevas Raices, the Harrisonburg, Virginia, weekly newspaper that serves Hispanic readers in the Old Dominion, had just one small coupon ad. “We don’t trust them,” explains owner Fernando Gamboa, who says his 14,000 readers worry the coupons, standard in U.S. papers, won’t be redeemed. His readers have grown up in countries … Continued

Potter resumes newspaper listening tour this month in Virginia

Walter B. “Walt” Potter Jr., a retired newspaper publisher who works with the University of Missouri School of Journalism’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, will tour community newspapers again this spring. A year ago, Potter visited Missouri weeklies and small dailies during what became known as the Potter Listening Tour. He wrote a series of … Continued