The Guttenberg Press – a trusted news source
The Guttenberg Press has served the community for 129 years and has been at its 10 Schiller Street location since the mid-1950s. (Press photo by Austin Greve)
By Caroline Rosacker
The recent announcements of reducing print publication days with a shift from printed news to online publication for certain days at the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque and the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and an ongoing ad for a feature writer/editor at The Guttenberg Press have community members wondering, "What is the future of our hometown publication?"
John Ingebritsen, Publisher at Morris Newspaper Corporation (MNC) Wisconsin, Lancaster recently assured The Guttenberg Press staff that the paper will still be published and delivered weekly while searching for a writer/editor.
Ingebritsen manages 14 newspapers that cover news in Northeast Iowa, and Southwest Wisconsin. He oversees a number of talented employees who can provide local news coverage for multiple publications.
Community commitment
"We still see the value of small-town newspapers," said Ingebritsen. "The increasing cost of newsprint, postage, and employee salaries and benefits make it more difficult to be cost-effective."
Community commitment to reading and advertising in the Guttenberg Press is vital to the future of the business.
Technology has provided multiple platforms for people to get their news, but people are needed to provide content. Newspapers stand as a trusted, reliable news source, where online news can be quickly edited, removed, or simply go unseen. Newsprint has historical value.
"Online news only is difficult because it is more of a passive approach," Ingebritsen noted. "You post the news to a website and hope people are reading it, but it isn't being dropped off at their doorstep."
He went on to say,
"Another issue has been a lack of protection of intellectual property to the point that if we post anything digitally it can and will be scrapped and used on another platform without consent or compensation."
MNC pays staff for their time in covering and reporting the news only to see others who do not pay for that take it and use it. Social media has also created issues with people taking photos on their phones of photos and stories in the paper and then sharing that with friends and family. "Many people think we should send them digital copies of a story they or a family member were in so they can pass that on to family as well," he added.
Currently, there are many more nontraditional journalists in the industry. "We have to deal with people coming and going all the time — it's part of the business," he concluded.
