Kate Griffin freelance journalism and editing

Community journalism is a relatively new and rapidly changing area, so I don't feel confident in coming up with a catch-all definition of what makes a community newspaper. On the other hand, I do want readers of this blog to know what I'm talking about, so it might be helpful if I list some of the characteristics that most community newspapers have in common.

A community newspaper...?

In my last blog post, I wrote about how many regional papers are calling themselves community newspapers despite being nothing of the sort.

I want to reclaim the term "community newspaper".  A real community newspaper is created by the community with the fundamental aim of enriching the community it serves. This enrichment may take many forms, including but not limited to: