Sarah Nigbor

It’s a good week, celebrating two of my favorite things: National Newspaper Week and National 4-H Week. And last week was National Coffee Day. Wow, a hat trick for me!

I was a shy seventh grader when I joined the Cloverleaf 4-H club near River Falls. The club was led by my mom’s landlords, Frances and Cliff Benedict. We rented their small green farmhouse on Highway 29 east of River Falls (replaced now by a giant blue shed/house) and they convinced my mom that 4-H was just the thing I needed. How did they know? I’ll never forget their kindness and guidance.

Thanks to 4-H, I tried things I had never done before and I made friends with kids outside of my school district who shared my interests. I played softball, I participated in the Pierce County Fair, I learned how about public speaking, I learned to serve my community. I made memories that will last a lifetime and now I get to watch my daughter make her own memories. I came out of my shell and gained confidence in my abilities, a confidence I had never possessed. I realized I could make a difference in the world, that I could make things happen and not wait for them to happen to me. 

The Cloverleaf club no longer exists, but my love for 4-H has grown. Pierce County 4-H is one of the top programs in the state, under the leadership of April Daniels, and before her, Sky Holt and Frank Ginther. We are lucky to have such a robust program. Check out our special tribute to 4-H in this week’s edition.

Another love of mine is clearly newspapers. I prefer to have the actual paper in my hands, but I also enjoy news websites as well. This year marks the 83^rd celebration of National Newspaper Week.

We are inundated with information through social media, memes, websites, and emails. The unfortunate reality is that much of the “news” found on social media is not fact-checked or accurate. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media because it allows me to keep up with far-flung friends and family. But just because it’s posted on the Ellsworth WI or River Falls WI Community page doesn’t make it true.

Local newspapers have suffered major hits in the past decade. According to a Poynter Institute study published just last year, 360 newspapers, mostly weeklies, shut their doors from 2019-2022. This was in addition to the 2,400 that closed from 2002-2019. This has created news deserts across the country, especially in poor and/or rural areas.

In 2019, I resigned from the newspaper business because of this changing landscape. After weathering cuts, layoffs, building closures and a total lack of commitment from the corporate mothership, when Forum combined the Pierce County Herald into the Red Wing Republican Eagle and the River Falls, New Richmond and Hudson papers under the name Star-Observer, I threw in the towel. I couldn’t do it anymore. My heart wasn’t in it and I was tired of being defeated. If they didn’t care, why should I?

I’m glad somebody cared. John McLoone, our publisher, is a stubborn man who wasn’t about to throw in the towel. With small newspapers closing left and right, he took a chance, during a pandemic no less, and launched the Pierce County Journal, a rebrand of the Prescott Journal. I’m sure many told him it couldn’t be done, but he proved them wrong. People missed what they had lost when their local paper “merged.” The support has been and continues to be tremendous.

I came out of journalism exile in April 2021 and have never looked back. As we continue to evolve, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for local news. Thank you for your support of local news, of Pierce County 4-H, and don’t forget, I’ll never turn down coffee!