| Dunn's
Daily Record Keep Loyal Readers Coming Back
By Susan Tart
The small town of Dunn doesn’t seem
to have a lot going on when driving through
it, but the local paper tells a different story.
Its pages are full of news; and for some people,
the “Daily Record” contains the
only news that matters.
"It's the only paper that we have that
has all the latest news that’s just here
for the local area,” said Tom McKinney
as he bought a paper off the side of the street.
The Daily Record has been in print for nearly
fifty-six years. The paper’s focus on
local news is rumored to have kept it in business
for so long.
“What we strive to do everyday is cover
our local community in ways that other organizations
can’t and won’t do,” Bart
Adams, the current editor and publisher of the
paper said.
Although many newspapers are losing their readers
to the internet, the Daily Record has a readership
rate of more than one hundred percent. One reason
it sells so many copies is because of when the
paper gets released. A hot meal isn’t
the only thing people are after at lunchtime—they
also go to read the Daily Record, hot off the
press at noon.
“People who subscribe to the paper and
get it at home might pick up a paper at lunch.
And also people who live outside of the city
zone, they might come into town and pick up
a copy,” Bart said.
But why do people buy a few copies? Hoover
Adams, Bart’s father and founder of the
paper, writes a column called “These Little
Things.” He fills it with what people
want to read.
“You want to know who had a baby and
who died, what the church is doing, what the
city hall is doing. People are hungry for news," Hoover
said.
And hungry they are. Dunn native and UNC-CH
student Enetta Grindstaff reads the paper to
keep up with her friends.
"They print everything about everybody,
whether it’s school accomplishments or
someone going to jail. Anything you could possibly
want to know is in the paper,” Grindstaff
said.
"Actually once you get down to it, ‘Little
Things’ is pretty much a gossip column," Hoover
admitted.
But Bart will be the first to tell you that
printing news about people in a small town can
get a bit messy.
“Sometimes people think oh, we kind
of thrive on controversy, but believe me there
were plenty of days where I wish this story
didn’t happen or that story didn’t
happen,” Bart said.
But for a town of only nine thousand, a tell-all
paper of local news is important.
"I read this paper because I want to see
who's been naughty and who's been nice. I mean,
I want to see what’s going on in my town," Grindstaff
said.
Maybe that’s the formula for saving the
vanishing newspaper and keeping it on the stands
in the US.
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