{"id":431,"date":"2022-02-25T12:46:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T17:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/?p=431"},"modified":"2022-02-25T13:19:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T18:19:48","slug":"print-the-truth-and-raise-hell-tom-cullen-and-the-importance-of-local-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/2022\/02\/print-the-truth-and-raise-hell-tom-cullen-and-the-importance-of-local-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"“Print the Truth and Raise Hell”: Tom Cullen and the Importance of Local Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Madeline Phaby<\/a><\/em>
@madphabes<\/a>
Senior History & Sociology Major<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storm Lake is an anomaly in more ways than one. Pick a rural Iowa town of about 14,000 people at random, and the odds of it having a foreign-born population of more than 30 percent are, I think it’s safe to say, quite low. The odds of it having not one, but two local newspapers? Even lower.

Indeed, Storm Lake boasts two separate newspapers in an era when few small towns can claim to have just one. The Pilot-Tribune<\/em> is the older of the two by nearly 100 years, as it has existed in some form since the 1890s. (We’re looking forward to involving its editor, Dana Larsen<\/em>, in our class this semester.) But it\u2019s the Times<\/em>, founded in 1990, that lays claim to a Pulitzer Prize and a documentary.

Brothers Art and John Cullen serve as the editor and publisher of The Times<\/em>, respectively, and they keep the paper afloat with the help of a small-but-mighty staff made up of mostly family members. Art is the boss\u2014and the author of the editorials that earned The Times<\/em> a Pulitzer\u2014but the most common byline on the paper\u2019s stories belongs to his son, Tom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tom Cullen joined our class for a discussion of local journalism, Storm Lake, and its changes since <\/em>The Times first began publishing.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


We asked Tom many questions about local journalism, growing up in Storm Lake, and the town\u2019s unique culture. His answers were insightful, but, as a journalist myself, his views on the importance of local journalism were of particular interest to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I work as an editor for The Miami Student<\/em>, our newspaper here at Miami University. We\u2019re completely student-run, but because the surrounding city of Oxford has no professional newspaper, we\u2019re the city\u2019s primary source of local news. That\u2019s a lot of pressure for a team of 18-22 year olds whose editorial board changes every single year, but as far as newspapers go, we\u2019re privileged. We put our souls into our paper only to get accused of publishing fake news by people twice our age, but we receive funding from the university \u2013 we don\u2019t experience the anxiety of needing to sell subscriptions to keep our newsroom\u2019s lights on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was eager to ask Cullen a question about how The Times<\/em> has maintained a high-quality print paper while also shifting some of its focus onto its website, as journalism is trending increasingly toward a digital-first approach. We at The Student<\/em> have spent countless hours pondering that very question, and I\u2019m sure the staff of The Times<\/em> has too, but Cullen\u2019s answer was simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Senior Madeline Phaby checking the finished product.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s print or digital or video, you have to write stories that people will read above all else,\u201d Cullen said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have that, you\u2019ve got nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need to write stories people will read, Cullen said, caused him to occasionally test the boundaries of what was \u201cacceptable\u201d to write about. Specifically, he mentioned writing expos\u00e9s on large agricultural suppliers, many of which also advertised in The Times<\/em>. Journalism is so competitive, Cullen said, that a publication that wishes to stand out needs to cross into spaces \u201cwhere other newspapers just wouldn\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many other small, local newspapers, The Times<\/em> hardly makes any profit. As hard as that is, Cullen said it removes some of the pressure to please the masses that exists in larger newspapers with significant streams of revenue. As Cullen puts it, \u201cyou do not write stories for sources; you write stories for readers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more bluntly, a brief guide Cullen wrote for interns at The Times<\/em> states that the newspaper\u2019s guiding philosophy is to \u201cprint the truth and raise Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s print or digital or video, you have to write stories that people will read above all else. If you don\u2019t have that, you\u2019ve got nothing.<\/p>\u2014 Tom Cullen<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Armed with that clear mission, The Times<\/em> does its best to cover Storm Lake\u2019s most pertinent issues, though Cullen admits the publication isn\u2019t perfect. Despite the town\u2019s noted diversity, the paper\u2019s subscriber base is overwhelmingly white and college-educated. Expanding its readership to include other demographic groups\u2014especially those with a first language other than English\u2014has proven very difficult for the paper. Cullen said the best remedy for this issue is to continue publishing stories about aspects of Storm Lake life that people of all backgrounds care about\u2014the schools, the churches, the Tyson plant\u2014in hopes of \u201cgetting to the issues that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The questions of who the paper is meant to serve, and which issues ultimately \u201cmatter,\u201d are ones that every newspaper with limited resources, including my own, have to confront. Above all else, though, small towns that have local newspapers have a noted advantage over those that don\u2019t: whenever something important happens in town, be it big or small, someone will be there to cover it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the backstop, at the end of the day,\u201d Cullen said. \u201cAnd if we\u2019re not there, then no one else is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Madeline Phaby<\/strong> is a senior majoring in history and sociology with a minor in political science. Her research interests include the American West, Indigenous history, and Latin American history. She currently serves as an editor at The Miami Student, Miami University\u2019s student-run newspaper, and she loves that the Storm Lake class combines her interests in history and journalism. In her spare time, Madeline enjoys watching baseball, doing crossword puzzles, and reading. She hopes to eventually go to law school and become an immigration lawyer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Madeline Phaby@madphabesSenior History & Sociology Major Storm Lake is an anomaly in more ways than one. Pick a rural Iowa town of about 14,000 people at random, and the odds of it having a foreign-born population of more than 30 percent are, I think it’s safe to say, quite… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5945,"featured_media":441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project-update"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}