A news desert is generally defined as a community that has limited access to a credible news source, like a newspaper.
Six counties in Virginia fall under that category, and have no daily or weekly paper. And the owner of some of the largest papers in the state, Lee Enterprises, just announced it’s no longer printing Monday editions.
But there also those in the business who still control their content locally, and have no intention of changing the model.
Matt Paxton was just a kid growing up in Lexington when he first spent time at the offices of the News-Gazette, a newspaper his dad owned and operated for more than 30 years.
He even took a few pictures for the paper, and stuffed in those fliers from the grocery store before delivery. Back then, he never imaged being part of the family business, studying economics at The University of Virginia instead.
Paxton had come to think that newspaper work was all about writing, a little like writing essays in college. Those views changed dramatically over time.
“I went into banking for a period of time. And actually, was brought back into the business by my dad’s non-family member partner in 1980. Once I got back, I fell in love with it,” he explained. “And so, my Dad and I were partners for 10 years – he was the editorial guy, I was the business side guy.”
The Paxtons have now run the paper for four generations. In the role of publisher, Matt even contributes a monthly column. These days, the physical News-Gazette is printed on Wednesday, but the website updates daily, with other news items posted to social media.
Seeing the loss of local news in recent years, he worries what would come of the staff if his newspaper wound up in the wrong hands.
“I couldn’t walk down the street if that happened,” he said. “I had a good friend that sold his paper in the Richmond area to a larger corporation – and people will stop him on the street, and say ‘I sure wish you’d come back and start a paper again – I just didn’t want to have to go through that.”
Anne Adams has a similar story. An art major at Tulane University, she never took a journalism class.
She says when her mother decided to retire, she bought an old, abandoned farmhouse in Highland County, and urged her to take the summer of 1990 off of school to renovate the place.

Adams never left, taking an ad sales job at The Recorder, which is based in Highland County, but also serves Bath and Allegheny Counties, with offices in each. Her work at the newspaper quickly expanded – to designing section covers, printing jobs, and writing her first feature within a couple of months.
“So, it was very much learning on the job, feet to the fire,” she said. “I didn’t envision even staying Highland County at first. But - I just fell in love with this area, fell in love with the people, and fell in love with journalism.”
Adams said there’s a lot of pride that comes with covering the region for her 35 years, and tracking stories that might need revisiting.
That includes one of Virginia’s largest sources of power – the Bath County Pumped Storage Station.
“It was the largest pumped storage station of its kind in the world – serving seven states when it was built. But it also displaced a lot of people,” she said. “It changed the landscape of the communities that we live in. For the 25th anniversary, I did a big special section, that talked about the history, and how it was developed. That was one of my favorites.”
A longtime journalist turned media professor says one of his duties is helping his students seek out where these kinds of stories aren’t being covered. Now an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee University, Patrick Walters spent 15 years covering the news in Philadelphia – for two local papers, and the Associated Press.
“One of the biggest things I want to try to do, is to show them is that local – is essential,” he explained. “And that they can contribute to local news in very, very real ways.”
Walters challenges his students to think of what’s happening where they come from.
“Once they get past the national issues that come mind – and they think, ‘oh, you want to know about my town!,” he said. Then they’ll start to really say – oh, everybody’s talking about this. I think that’s at the core of a journalist – and the civic responsibility of a journalist.”
A study at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina reveals the locations of news deserts in Virginia.
Back at the News-Gazette, Matt Paxton says his two daughters are not interested in running the paper for a fifth generation, so he knows there some hard talks ahead.
“It needs to be locally owned and controlled,” he explained. “And whether that’s by somebody from here, that buys it, or somebody moves here and buys it to run it, or creating some sort of organization to own it and manage it, I don’t know. But we’re looking at a lot of options.”

The Recorder is in the same situation. Anne Adams’ six kids don’t want the job of succeeding her either.
“I’m very certain it would need to go to somebody who lives here,” she said. “To keep it independent – somebody who’s invested in the community, because that’s what makes it good. We live here, my staff lives here, we raise our children here, we know what’s important. And I still live here. And I wouldn’t want to live in a place without a good community newspaper.”
While journalists at sources like The Recorder and News-Gazette work to keep things local, Professor Patrick Walters says news deserts are indeed a crisis, and it’s on him, and his students, to find new ways to collaborate.
“When they can cover these local issues that may seem small in the grand scheme of things, but are everything in those communities, then that’s impact,” he said. “And I think when you can connect the passion students have for something like that – I feel a great responsibility to be able to do that.”
The Recorder is believed to be oldest continuously published newspaper of any size in The Commonwealth, first printed in 1877. And now, it’s being honored for its longevity.
Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources has announced it will recognize the paper with a historical marker, with ceremonies expected early next year.