In my handful of trips made to St. Charles, Illinois, I had never come across a local paper until this most recent visit. My hotel had a stack of Daily Herald papers in its lobby so I took a look. I have to say I’m impressed. I would’ve never thought that a paper could thrive in the shadow of giants like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times but this one apparently does.
The Herald serves the suburbs of Chicago. It keeps a decidedly-local focus but still carries occasional AP wire stories. It appeared to have a robust advertising business (including, regretfully, some of the same shyster “gold exhibit” type of advertising that I’ve taken the N&O to task for). Aside from the somewhat wingnut-flavored stories (OMG gummint employees are being compensated for their unused sick time!!!) it seems like a decent newspaper.
I think the Daily Herald may be validating my view that the way for media to succeed is to focus on the local. That, and don’t take on a mountain of debt!