Small town newspapers thriving, according to report

Columnist Joe Kimball says local papers are surviving economic meltdown within news industry.

“Last week’s worrisome front-page New York Times story — “As Cities Go From Two Papers to One, Talk of Zero”
— raised the specter of a death knell for many papers in big markets, 
but also brought an interesting comment from a long-time source of mine.

“Did
you see this NY Times piece?” emailed Connie Shaver at the Ordway
Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. “My hometown of Slayton,
MN, pop. 2000 or so, has TWO weekly papers. The entire county (Murray)
has a population of only 9,000. It’s amazing to me that there is enough
revenue to support both. They are printed in the old broadsheet format
and seem oversized compared to the whittled-down dailies.””