Thursday August 17, 2023
COMMENTARY: You say goodbye, and I say hello
by Martin Davis
FOUNDER AND EDITOR
It’s a season of goodbyes and hellos at the FXBG Advance, and in these goings and comings we also get a glimpse of our future.
First the goodbyes and hellos.
Our intern Savannah Dunn has returned to school at Christopher Newport University and is resuming her studies. In her brief tenure with us, Savannah proved a joy to work with. Young and eager to learn, Savannah dived into covering the Fredericksburg City Council and helped our readers stay on top of those important local meetings. We wish Savannah all the best as she steps back into the Ivory Tower.
Joining the Advance as a writer is Jess Kirby. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you have close ties to the University of Mary Washington. A recent UMW graduate, Jess studied journalism and sociology, and served as editor-in-chief of The Weekly Ringer – UMW’s independent student newspaper. (To learn more about her groundbreaking and hard-hitting work, read her farewell essay.) She also freelances as a writer, editor, and graphic designer in the Fredericksburg area.
Jess’ first story for the Advance should appear next week, and we look forward to her growing with us.
Which brings us to … our future
It’s no surprise that the percentage of people regularly following news is down. The 2021 Newspaper Fact Sheet produced by Pew Research has little but bad news. Not only have the total number of newspaper subscribers fallen in real terms, but they’ve plummeted as a percentage of the society. And the numbers are worse among young readers.
So that young talent like Savannah and Jess is coming to the Advance is encouraging. These people understand the importance of news, and they’re the ones who will carry the tradition of newspapers into the 21st century – whatever that tradition comes to look like.
A piece in the Washington Post this week suggested that what news has become needs to change. People, the piece pointed out, are turning away from news not just because they are reading less, but because they’re turned off by the content they’re receiving.
According to the story:
Haunted by a sense that the news is relentlessly toxic, once-loyal readers and viewers have been gradually ebbing away, posing a persistent threat to the news business.
The truth is that news is always going to cover difficult stories (see our own recent pieces about the Spotsylvania County School Board and the debate over signature dates on voter signature forms collected on January 1).
But an overreliance on the bad is driving people away. Per the Post story, an endless stream of bad news:
drives feelings of depression, anger, anxiety or helplessness.
The answer to this isn’t a relentless stream of all-good-news-all-the-time. Rather, it’s balancing the “Fourth Estate’s” role the news media in the U.S. has long played watching our government organizations and leaders, with the encouraging and inspiring news of people who are making a difference.
Fredericksburg is rich in multi-talented people who are doing great things in our community.
And from the beginning, the Advance has carved out space to highlight these people. Our “Why Behind the Why” series features interesting and influential people, and provides them a forum to tell their stories and give people an opportunity to learn about the work they’re involved with.
The New Dominion Podcast is built upon the same principle.
As the Advance grows, we look forward to doing more Why Behind the Why columns, and growing the way that we cover those “extraordinary people,” as one letter writer described them, who live in our community.
Thanks for growing with us, and being a part of making the future of news in Fredericksburg.
OBSERVED
The debate in Fredericksburg between those wishing to increase density and those who wish a more-managed growth plan that preserves the integrity of downtown as we currently know it has been in our pages of late.
And it was on my mind this evening as I walked down Caroline Street headed home after recording our podcast at Curitiba.
I’ve walked past Goolrick’s countless times since moving here in 2000. But this evening I was struck by the restoration of this 125-year-old Fredericksburg institution, and the neon sign that hangs out front.
Somehow, old and new have managed to become part of the “past” that we all fondly remember. Though I don’t know when the neon sign first appeared (any local historians want to help me out?), I do know that the neon Goolrick’s sign isn’t original to the soda shop. Neon signs didn’t appear until 1910, and were most popular in the U.S. between the 1920s and 1950s.
Perhaps it was the time of night. Perhaps it was because of the turmoil the city is experiencing. Whatever it was, on this evening, I was reminded that the past we experience is itself the history of the evolution of the city.
Something to weigh and discuss as the city continues to redefine itself and evolve.
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Thank you for reading and supporting FXBG Advance.
-Martin Davis, Editor
In response to your point about us as your newspaper readership, I’ll ask a deliberately-open-ended question. Have you ever considered turning us from an audience into a movement?