A newspaper in Camden started by ‘hippies’ prints its final edition
The Camden Community News ended a 50-year run this summer. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
Over the weekend, the 10,000 subscribers to the Camden Community News received their copy in the mail. It was the final edition after 50 years of sharing news and stories from the 55412 area code.
News of the closing was published on the inside of the August paper so the front page could let readers know about two big events, the primary election and the inaugural Taste of Lyndale.
Editor Laurel Parrott wrote the announcement, saying to print a newspaper in this vast digital age was no longer sustainable. In a nutshell, soaring printing costs, a steep decline in advertising revenue, and readers turning to social media for headlines sank it.
“Too many people said, ‘Don’t stop’ and I cry every time I hear one of those,” said Parrott, who has been with the paper since 1992 and stopped taking a salary in the last decade to offset rising costs. A typesetter and bookkeeper were the only paid positions in its final days.
The mostly volunteer-run Camden Community News was a nonprofit newspaper that started in 1976 from a flyer “handed out by a bunch of hippies” to let people know where the parties were, Parrot said. They got serious and decided a newspaper was a good idea to connect neighbors, promote local businesses, events and people, and encourage resident participation in the quality of life in these Northside neighborhoods.
Losing a local newspaper has become too familiar across the country and here in Minnesota, which has lost 34 percent of its newspapers since 2005, according to Axios News.
We at North News admired how the paper covered development, local businesses and Camden High School. No event or accomplishment was too small to include in the newspaper.
It updated readers on the Upper Harbor Terminal project, chronicled community events, and wrote about the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of Camden residents. Frequently, we linked to their stories in the weekly North Newsletter; Camden News had a website before The Minnesota Star Tribune. The Camden News web page has been offline in recent months, and it was an expense it could not afford to maintain.
“This August hard copy of the Camden News is a notice; if we can swing it, the last issue will be September,” Parrott wrote. “But that’s it. We don’t want any donations – it would only prolong the inevitable demise - donate to any local charity and enjoy the last couple of issues.”
Susan Breedlove, a local historian, retired teacher and regular contributor who covered Camden High School, signed off on her final article with a tribute to her beloved newspaper.
She began writing about the high school after a school staff member passed her the baton 15 years ago.
“I view the demise of Camden News a significant loss to the 10,000 recipients, to the city as a whole, and to the schools, their students and their families,” Breedlove said.
Marky Wagner, also known as “Paper Boy” and the newspaper’s board treasurer, thanked longtime donors and advertisers, including Northend Hardware, Crystal Lake Cemetery and Washburn-McReavy Funeral Services.
Parrott said she hopes to reactivate the Camden News website as a living archive and Wagner holds hope that someone in the community will one day resurrect hyperlocal covers in seven neighborhoods that make up Camden.
“I have joked in the past that the median age of the board members is about 150 years old and we would all like to retire,” Wagner wrote. “Maybe the paper will have a chance to continue in a different form such as a monthly digital form with some new blood running the joint. Good luck to anyone who may want to do it possibly digital or in some other type of format.”