A letter from our editor
Reporting the news is a privilege and true journalism is a public service.
It’s one the Texarkana Gazette’s journalists have been proud to perform for 150 years, and plan to continue for another century-and-a-half.
The twin cities celebrated their sesquicentennial two years ago, which means the Gazette’s job started only two years after the cities came to be. So similar to Texarkana, we think this a cause for celebration, and we will spend 2025 honoring 150 years of local journalism provided by the Texarkana Gazette.
That celebration will provide an opportunity for our community to support the newspaper. It’s no secret the media industry has had its share of financial challenges over the last 20 years, and we are no different. As such, the Texarkana Gazette is launching a philanthropic endeavor through the Texarkana Gazette Community Journalism Project to help us continue publishing for another 150 years.
It’s been our privilege to report Texarkana’s news, but that privilege comes at a cost. For the vast majority of the Gazette’s revenue in previous years, advertising dollars funded our journalistic undertakings. During the last two decades, the adverting industry has entirely changed. No media is immune to it. Television, radio and print have all had to adjust to the coming of digital advertising.
In our industry, the rise of digital marketing has left a slew of news deserts and publications operating on skeletal crews in its wake. The Medill Local News Initiative found 26 counties across the country where more than 3.5 million people live, there is no access to local news. Most of these areas are rural with socioeconomic demographics similar to the Texarkana region. Thankfully, the Texarkana Gazette has weathered that storm, but we are not invulnerable to it. The Gazette continues to employ 19 full-time newsroom employees thanks to our parent company WEHCO Media’s vision and commitment to objective journalism. But the Gazette has not made a profit since 2018, and that is simply not sustainable in the long run.
So we need our community’s help. Donations can help ensure the Gazette is able to continue bringing you the news that matters most to those in and around Texarkana. With your support, we can continue writing stories that highlight the best in our community, like our articles on biologists studying rare bacteria on A&M-Texarkana’s campus. We can fulfill our role as a watchdog and dedicate our staff to following the exploits of our local governing bodies, making sure issues like having a kennel far too small for a city the size of Texarkana, Texas is brought to light. And we can continue to cover sports like no one else in the twin cities, focusing on the student athletes who are fighting hard in the classroom and on the gridiron. These donations will be administered by our friends at the Texarkana Area Community Foundation, a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit that shares our commitment to reporting about community needs.
We focus our efforts on maximizing our digital audience of over 125,000 website and replica application visitors a month with advertising sales while giving respect and homage to our print products that have sustained us for so long. These efforts coupled with an emphasis on subscriber growth and retention have kept the Gazette in the hunt for profitability, seeking a way forward without hurting our core mission of reporting the news. But the cost grows each year.
Similar sized markets do not place this sort of premium on quality journalism or employing enough reporters to effectively cover a community. Profits are their main goal, and that quest is the main priority regardless of how it impacts journalistic integrity. A community of Texarkana’s size would have a newsroom of eight compared to our 19. I know this, because I used to work for such a company.
Profit is important for any business in any industry to stay afloat. But in this industry, the pursuit of profit in place of full and accurate reporting is folly. It’s a bridge to nowhere. I believe the only way forward for the Texarkana Gazette is a quality publication that focuses on our readers first and makes the business of the people its core responsibility. Local stories on business, government, sports, non-profits, events and even crime allow a newspaper to represent the soul of a community in a way no other medium can. And that is our goal above anything else. We work to report the news through podcasts, videos, photos and traditional written word for the residents of the twin cities. We have evolved our practice to reach people in ways our colleagues of 30 years ago wouldn’t have imagined. Our dream is to bring the news to you in whichever way you want to enjoy it.
But as I mentioned before, that dream has become harder. We have seen advertising revenue decline year-over-year. Digital subscribers are gaining steam, but we are losing our core subscriber base too quickly for digital customers to replace them. And the litany of subscription-based services has played havoc with our long-time business model.
Your contribution to the Texarkana Gazette Community Journalism Project is an investment in the future of local news and ensuring the vitality of a trusted voice in our community. Throughout the year, we will celebrate and reflect on the past 150 years as we work to raise $150,000 to help preserve our legacy of local journalism. The first 150 people to donate $150 or more will also receive an invitation to our sesquicentennial celebration in November.
Facilitating the reporting, writing and dissemination of our stories has gotten harder, but we know this community deserves a quality newspaper in a print or digital format, and we know our citizens want it to stay. And we need your help to keep the Gazette publishing for another 150 years. It is our honor to cover this community, and any donation you can make to the Texarkana Gazette Community Journalism Project will help ensure Texarkana’s first draft of history continues to find a home in the Gazette.
Sincerely,
James Bright
Editor
Texarkana Gazette