This week marks the beginning of the 149th year of this newspaper’s operation.
That’s a long time for any business, and this one is unique because it depends on the success of the community it serves. A newspaper can’t survive in a community where the local businesses aren’t healthy enough to advertise and promote their operations.
This paper has survived some tough times. It chronicled the Great Depression, the fire that nearly destroyed the city, the Great Flood, and wars.
During my tenure we covered the tornado that devastated our community a decade ago, floods and other difficult times.
A few years ago I contacted Norman Mott Jr., the former owner and publisher of The Yazoo Herald whose family ran the paper for three generations. I told him I was trying to get an early start on putting together something special for the paper’s 150th anniversary, and I was hoping he’d be willing to share some of his knowledge of the paper’s history with me.
Mr. Mott quickly responded with a great deal of information. He told me that he was glad I was planning to do something special for the 150th anniversary of the paper because he had planned to do something for the 100th anniversary, but unfortunately, it was a difficult time for the local economy and the paper couldn’t afford to do what he planned.
The current circumstances have allowed me to see things from that perspective. I’ve been in the newspaper business for almost 20 years, and here at The Yazoo Herald for 14 of those years, and this is by far the toughest I’ve ever seen it.
We’re not alone.
Our local businesses are hurting, and they need our support more than ever.
Local businesses are the backbone of our community. These are the folks that live here, work here and invest their hard-earned money here at home. These are the folks that sponsor the youth sports teams, support the local schools and contribute to countless worthy causes when needs arise.
They create jobs, pay taxes and provide needed services.
I hope that we’ll all remember that when we begin recovering from this pandemic. Some things are going to change about our lives forever. Hopefully one of them will be a renewed appreciation for supporting our hometown businesses.
As for our business, the most important factor in The Yazoo Herald’s gameplan isn’t changing. We intend to survive by providing a needed service, which is delivering the important news.
We’re going to continue keeping an eye on local government and reporting on local news that’s important to you.
Some things may change over time in the way that we deliver the news. Our website is becoming an increasingly important part of our operation.
Traffic to our website has grown tremendously recently, and we have responded to that demand by posting daily updates to the site. It has allowed us to overcome some of the weaknesses of print by being able to post obituaries immediately rather than waiting until the day the paper comes out, and getting important breaking news stories published quickly.
It is amazing to me to see how many people are currently reading The Yazoo Herald on their phones. When I started working here in 2006, I wouldn’t have thought that would even be an option. Now it’s the fastest-growing segment of our readership.
We will continue to respond to the desires of our readers when it comes to the ways that we deliver the news.
It is definitely not a boring time to be in the news business.
We don’t know what changes will come, but we do know for certain that The Yazoo Herald will always be committed to doing our very best to serve this community. That has worked out well for us for 149 years, and that will always be our mission.
