Bookworm: A pressing matter – New books on newspaper is absolutely

“Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy”

• By Margot Susca
• c. 2024, University of Illinois Press
• $24.95, 232 pages

“What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, nd the Future of the Fourth Estate”

• By Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy
• c. 2024, Beacon Press
• $29.95, 264 pages

You were a bit pressed for time last night and you missed the council meeting. You figured you were covered, though. You’d read about it in the newspaper – or not. The local paper isn’t as staffed as it once was, nor as thick, maybe not even entirely local. And with these two books, you’ll learn why this is so and how the newspaper industry is adapting.

In the last two decades, you may’ve noticed a change in your larger local paper. In “Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy,” author Margot Susca lays the blame on one thing: money.

Not so long ago, as you may know, private investment funds like Fortress Investment Group, Alden Global Capital, and Chatham Asset Management began buying up newspapers of all sizes. Susca says “they are not alone” but they are the ones who “have sat atop this private fund newspaper plutocracy as owners ... ”

Twenty billion dollars was spent in 2007 for various firms to acquire newspapers. In the ensuing 11 years, $10 trillion was spent on mergers and acquisitions.

“Power in the newspaper market changed and shrank into a handful of companies,” Susca says, in “[a] dizzying frenzy of M&A ... ” Formerly family-owned papers were purchased and closed. Large newsroom staffs were gutted in layoffs and buyouts. Subscriptions fell. Local coverage suffered for it.

In the midst of what she says, “cannot exist under private investment fund control,” there are beacons of light that offer some optimism.

In “What Works in Community News” by Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy, you’ll see how newspaper staffs have reclaimed that which their towns and neighborhoods need.

Here, you’ll read about a newspaper in New Jersey that’s partnered with a TV station to bring local and state news to its readers. You’ll learn of a newspaper that focuses on local immigrants, and others that have re-energized Minneapolis newsrooms. You’ll see how new journalists are being nurtured and taught, thanks to a country-wide service program. Learn about newspapers that exist because of business sponsors, grants, ads, donations, or a mixture of these.

Read about a Massachusetts newspaper with an online presence that vastly outdoes that of the competition in town. Find out about a small newspaper that hires staff to reflect its community’s racial balance. Read about cooperative ownership, community ownership, and a paper that was mostly run by freelancers for awhile ...

You remember the days when your father read the paper, front to back, with breakfast or after work. Was a time when your grandma got recipes and dress patterns from a newspaper ad. Things are different today, but the role of your local newsroom is more important than ever – especially now, in this election year. If you’re a concerned citizen and staying informed is key to living in your community, supporting your neighbors, and knowing what’s happening in your hometown, you owe yourself to read both of these books, perhaps in tandem.

You’ll see that having a healthy, thriving local newspaper is absolutely a pressing matter.

“Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family”

• By Mark Daley
• c. 2024, Atria Books
• $28.99, 304 pages

The closet is full of miniature hangers. The mattress bumpers match the drapes and the rug beneath the tiny bed. There’s a rocker for late-night fusses, a tall giraffe in the corner, and wind-up elephants march in a circle over the crib. Now you just need someone to occupy that space and in the new book, “Safe” by Mark Daley, there’s more than one way to accomplish that dream.

Jason was a natural-born father. Mark Daley knew that when they were dating, when he watched Jason with his nephew, with infants, and the look on Jason’s face when he had one in his arms. As a gay man, Daley never thought much having a family but he knew Jason did – and so, shortly after their wedding, they began exploring surrogacy and foster-to-adopt.

Daley knew how important it was to get the latter right: His mother had a less-than-optimal childhood, and she protected her own children fiercely for it. When Daley came out to her, and to his father, he was instantly supported and that’s what he wanted to give: support and loving comfort to a child in a hard situation.

Or children, as it happened. Just weeks after competing foster parenting classes and after telling the social worker they’d take siblings if there was a need, the prospective dads were offered two small brothers to foster.

It was love at first sight but euphoria was somewhat tempered by courts, laws, and rules. Their social worker warned several times that reunification of the boys with their parents was “Plan A,” but Daley couldn’t imagine it. The parents seemed unreliable; they rarely kept appointments, and they didn’t seem to want to learn better parenting skills. The mother all but ignored the baby, and the child noticed.

So did Daley, but the courts held all the power, and predicting an outcome was impossible.

“All we had was the present,” he said. “If I didn’t stay in it, I was going to lose everything I had.”

So was there a Happily-Ever-After?

Ah, you won’t find an answer to that question here. You’ll need to read “Safe” and wear your heart outside your chest for an hour or so, to find out. Bring tissues.

Bring a sense of humor, too, because author and founder of One Iowa Mark Daley takes readers along on his journey to being someone’s Daddy, and he does it with the sweetest open-minded open-heartedness. He’s also Mama Bear here, too, which is just what you want to see, although there can sometimes be a lot of tiresome over drama and over-fretting in that.

And yet, this isn’t just a sweet, but angst-riddled, tale of family. If you’re looking to foster, here’s one man’s truth about the frustrations, the stratospheric-highs, and the deep lows. Will your foster experiences be similar? Maybe, but reading this book about it is its own reward.

If you’re a parent, though, you’ll hang on to every word.

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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Read past columns at marconews.com.