At the end of this year, that number will drop to two, as Kay Wilson, who started the News Leader in 1996, announced this month that the paper’s Dec. 31 issue will be its last.
In explaining the decision, Wilson cited mounting challenges over the years. She said changes in mail sorting and delivery systems at the U.S. Postal Service forced her to deliver papers each week not only to the Maryville Post Office but also to the Stanberry Post Office; minimum wage increases strained her budget and “devalued” the wages earned by more skilled employees; and tariffs caused ink and printing costs to rise.
“I’ve had no control over [these factors],” Wilson said, “and I have not figured out how to adapt the paper’s operations to be best under these situations.”
Speaking in the paper’s storefront office on the Courthouse Square in Maryville on Dec. 11, shortly after announcing the closure, Wilson looked back fondly.
“There have been a lot of good stories,” she said, “stories that I felt we took the time to do right. You can’t always do that at a daily [paper].”
Wilson graduated from Northwest Missouri State University with a degree in English journalism and a minor in animal science, planning to work at a trade journal for the cattle industry. Instead, she stayed close to home and began reporting for The Hopkins Journal (which has since closed) and The Maryville Forum (which has reduced its publication schedule from daily to weekly).
Wilson began to feel the region needed a paper covering the entire county, and she started the News Leader “from scratch” with a staff of nine, releasing the first issue on March 15, 1996.
The paper has covered county government, the county’s 15 city governments, its seven school districts, and the community stories and “chicken dinner news” that emerged along the way.
Reflecting on notable stories from the paper’s three decades in print, Wilson named the 2002 Conception Abbey shooting, the 2004 murder of Bobbi Jo Stinnett, Northwest’s transition to online learning during the pandemic, and Maryville’s downtown revitalization efforts.
Wilson said the News Leader’s circulation peaked at around 3,000 subscribers in the early 2010s. There are about 8,400 households in the county. During the pandemic, circulation fell sharply and has remained around 2,100 ever since.
In retrospect, COVID-19 marked a turning point for both her readers and her paper.
“People withdrew from life. They curled up and covered their heads,” she said.
“The only thing we had [to report on] was the number of deaths. We’ve been known as the ‘good news paper,’ and there was very little good news. We worked hard to try to cover anything that was positive because [COVID] hit hard in rural America,” she said.
At one time, Wilson thought she would go in the newspaper industry forever.
“I used to laugh and say, ‘I need to get a coffin as a coffee table [for my office],’ and when I keel over here at the computer they could just roll me into the coffin and out the door I could go. The problem is, I just don’t have the energy. I don’t have the chutzpah to keep up with all the changes I can’t control,” she said.
When she turned 70 in July, conversations with her husband convinced her it was time to close. For now, she will continue running her partner business, Rush Printing.
Wilson considered selling the paper but having worked at the Forum when it was under corporate ownership, she had no interest in selling to a corporation. After asking around the region’s news industry, she knew there would be no other buyers.
Reflecting on the decline of local news, Wilson said, “It’s sad. It’s one of those things where I can see the writing on the wall, where it will be difficult for it to continue.”
“For democracy to exist, a local, reliable, complete news source that people can understand needs to exist in [a community],” she said.
Wilson has been “overwhelmed” by the emotional responses of readers since announcing the closure. Many felt it came abruptly; others have offered to double their subscription rates; some have shown up in tears at her front desk.
The paper currently employs six people, who will be out of work after the final issue runs on Dec. 31.
On Tuesday, Dec. 30, from 2 to 4 p.m., the News Leader will host an open house at its office at 116 E. Third St. in Maryville to mark its three decades of service.
