The Guardian

The newspaper industry was already faltering. Will coronavirus obliterate it?

“We have been able to hang on by our ink-stained fingernails,” writes Art Cullen, editor of Iowa’s Storm Lake Times
Art Cullen is editor and co-owner of the Storm Lake Times with his brother, John, publisher, and son Tom, a reporter. Photograph: Dolores Cullen/Associated Press

Our fearless leader/publisher Big Brother John and I were on the phone Monday holed up in our homes a block apart, each 200 yards north of the lovely lake in our town of 15,000. I stared out the window onto another dank day of Lent seemingly without an Easter. For about 15 seconds we considered shutting down the Storm Lake Times, Buena Vista County’s Hometown Newspaper. We quickly came to our senses.

We are too Iowa stubborn to quit, neither of us golf or have any productive hobbies, and one of the biggest stories of our lives is staring us in the face like the Grim

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