Daily Blog: Blackshear, Georgia

Blackshear, Georgia has 3000 residents. Another 14,000 residents live between Blackshear and the nearest large city. And most of those 17,000 folks get their news from the Blackshear Times:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iW2c6FXVDw86fanlUduXuG8qEb2AD99VGN2G0

Could the newspaper business be thriving in mid-sized cities around America? As the article notes:

"'CNN is not coming to my town to cover the news and there aren't a whole lot of bloggers here either,' said Robert M. Williams Jr., The Times' editor and publisher. 'Community newspapers are still a great investment because we provide something you can't get anywhere else.'

"The scarcity of other media in small- and medium-sized cities has helped shield hundreds of newspapers from the upheaval that's causing dailies in big cities to shrink in size and scope as their print circulations and advertising sales decline.

"Less competition means the print editions and Web sites of smaller newspapers remain the focal points for finding out what's happening in their coverage areas."

So in Blackshear, Georgia, folks still read the local paper to find out what's going on with their neighbors. The newspaper business may be dying in big cities, but it's alive in well in mid-sized cities across America.