Hilary Holladay began her reporting career at her hometown newspaper in Orange County. Later she would get a PhD in English and land a teaching job at the University of Massachusetts, but she missed the place where generations of Holladays had lived and decided to move back.
“My family roots go way back in Orange County, and I missed the paper I had worked for – the paper I had really loved.”
Like many smalltown publications, it had been purchased by Lee Enterprises – a publicly traded company that buys newspapers, sells off their real estate and cuts staffing to boost the bottom line. Often, they become what she and Augusta County journalist Chris Graham call ghost papers.
“You notice when your local paper suddenly has stories from Fredericksburg and Charlottesville and very little local content,” Holladay explains.
“In our area here, the News Virginian is a ghost newspaper at this stage. That’s the paper I started at,” Graham adds. “It has a name, it has a website, but it has no local reporters.”
So, he and his wife Crystal decided to start their own publication online – the Augusta Free Press, covering Staunton and Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and the counties that surround them.
“You know somebody needs to keep up with the city council, the board of supervisors and the school board and keep the local police in line, and ask questions and demand answers,” Graham says.
And Holladay launched a Substack newsletter called Byrd Street.
“I wanted to pay tribute to the most recent location of the old Orange County Review.”
Her website draws ten thousand views each month, including some paid subscribers, and there are a handful of advertisers.
The Augusta Free Press doesn’t sell subscriptions but does accept donations and has a number of advertisers who reach a surprisingly large number of locals.
“We were averaging a million page views per year. We’re now over 7.5 million page views per year.”
And he’s discovered some of them check in from places like Richmond and Washington.
“There are people outside of our little walls here – our two sets of mountains -- who are actually reading us!”
The Free Press does not shy away from controversy. In a region that has favored Republicans at the polls, Chris and Crystal Graham did not hesitate to oppose a move in Virginia to ban gay marriage.
“My thinking was, ‘Every advertiser we’ve got, they’re going to pull out. We’re going to get angry e-mails and people with pitchforks,” he recalls. "In fact, the response was positive."
Holladay also tackles hot topics – like the proposed high-voltage power line stretching across nine counties including Orange or plans to remove the Rapidan Dam.
“That’s within walking distance of my house, and my father— as a 16-year-old— helped build the dam, so I’ve heard about it all my life,” she says.
Still, Holladay does not object to taking the iconic dam down, given reasonable arguments from scientists who believe it will open miles of spawning habitat for fish. She notes letters to the editor often concern environmental issues.
“It shows how concerned people are in Orange County about this rural landscape that we treasure, and that’s something that unites people no matter where they are on the political spectrum.”
As do the arts. Holladay gives them virtual ink and has recently published Orange County’s first literary magazine – Byrd Whistle.
“Lots of my neighbors happen to be writers or artists,” she says. “Who knew?”
Both Holladay and Graham lament the loss of larger local newspapers – important training grounds for generations of journalists.
“I worry about reporters starting out now who end up at news sites that don’t have much in the way of editorial guidance,” Holladay explains.
But, for now, she, Chris and Crystal Graham will keep on sharing news of the communities they love by reporting online and expanding their reach thru podcasts and social media.
“I guess I joined the 21st century – just to reach people where they are. Every day I see something out there that I want to try!” Graham says.
