Salvation in Tupelo

If you are looking for ideas on just how to run a community newspaper, I urge you to check out the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo. The Daily Journal is owned by the non-profit CREATE Foundation established by the late George McLean. Its purpose is to improve the quality of life for every citizen in Northeast Mississippi and the newspaper plays an important role in that mission.

Here is just one line from the 10 principles that guide the newspaper in its coverage as written by former publisher McLean:

"We pledge the best efforts of this newspaper and its staff to the promotion and realization of a better life for every person in every aspect of existence."

In my opinion, this is how community newspapering should be done. These principles are must-read material for publishers. Sure, some of them are divorced from certain harsher realtiies facing many newspapers today. But the spirit--the intent, anyway--should exist in every newspaper in America.