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One of my favorite bumper stickers features the slogan “Democracy Depends on Journalism.”
It conjures visions of The New York Times and The Washington Post, of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.
Folks in Tipp City have been thinking smaller. Much smaller.
They have missed their community newspaper since The Tipp City Herald and The Independent Voice ceased publication within the past 18 months. "For the sake of keeping democracy afloat, we need a paper, a way to air who's running for public office and what issues we need to make a decision on," noted longtime resident Heather Bailey. "We had things on the ballot last year, and hardly anybody knew what they were."
The Tipp City Herald stopped publishing in September 2008, evolving into the Sunday Record-Herald, which was delivered along with the Troy Daily News. Now known as the Weekly Record-Herald, with Friday publication, the paper covers Tipp City as well as other communities in southern Miami County. "But it wasn't the same as having our very own paper," Bailey said.
Echoed Matt Owen, president and CEO of the Tipp City Area Chamber of Commerce, "With transition of The Tipp City Herald becoming The Record-Herald and the Independent Voice closing their doors, there seems to be a sense of loss in our community."
In July 2009, Mike McDermott started an electronic newspaper, TippNews Daily (http://tippnews.com) that helped to fill the void. “It worked for the people who are tech savvy, but not for those who are print-driven,” Bailey lamented.
Still, there was a noticeable decline in attendance at local events from Christmas tree lightings to patriotic celebrations. “We have more do-goody things in this little town than you can imagine, but we lost our primary means of telling our neighbors about the good work that we’re doing,” Bailey said.
That’s when folks in town started lobbying Mike Jackson, the retired director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Born and raised in Tipp City, Jackson, 63, was hardly what you might call “retired.” Since leaving the Hall of Fame, he started his own consulting firm for non-profit organizations, Integrity Marketing. The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel also launched “Operation Welcome Home,” a national movement to give fellow Vietnam veterans the homecoming celebration they never had.
He had plenty to keep him busy, but the idea of starting a hometown newspaper appealed to him. “I grew up here in the ’50s and ’60s, and nobody had a key to the house,” Jackson recalled. “I am who I am today due to the protective environment I grew up in.”
Another plus: His business partner, Tara Dixon Engel, boasts decades of experience in community newspapers as both reporter and editor. “When I was a young reporter at the Western Star in Lebanon, I remember everybody wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein,” Engel said. “I wanted to be William Allen White, who ran the Emporium Gazette in Kansas and whose writing epitomized small-town America.”
Ron Re, a retired police sergeant, noticed a severe drop in attendance at events sponsored by the local Masons Lodge, including a Veterans Day program last November.
He collared Jackson and declared, “We need a hometown paper.”
Jackson listened — and The Tippecanoe Gazette was born. The weekly publication will publish its first edition Wednesday, March 17, covering Tipp City and Monroe Twp. Engel said the newspaper will feature "small-town America from top to bottom, from the Chamber to City Council to club notes."
“If your story isn’t in the paper,” Jackson added, “it’s because you didn’t tell us about it.”
Engel will serve as managing editor, with a stable of freelancers — including local high school students — for her reporting staff. Jackson, who serves as business manager, knows many people think they’re crazy to be starting up a newspaper in this economy. “But this isn’t ‘hey kids, let’s start a newspaper,’ ” he said. “We have a strong business plan, backed by private investors.”
He doesn’t expect to make a fortune, but he hopes to break even, at least, with the town’s support. “The town is twice as big as when I grew up here,” Jackson said, “so the purpose of the paper is to bring back that small-town atmosphere.”
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a local charity, the Tipp Foundation, “because it’s the Tipp City way of doing things,” Jackson said.
Heather Bailey for one is ecstatic: “Once again we’ll be able to communicate with each other with one voice.”
Just ask the folks in Tipp City: Community depends on journalism, too.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@Dayton
DailyNews.com.
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