I know it when I see it

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said of obscenity, “I know it when I see it.” I feel the same way about newspapers.

In West Tennessee, some are confused about what exactly qualifies as a newspaper. And while the law may allow for technical definitions, any reader with a shred of common sense can tell the difference between a newspaper and something merely posing as one.

One area publication recently announced that it had printed its last full edition. Going forward, the bulk of its content will exist only online. An “e-edition” will be posted to the internet, while a folded 11x17 flyer—four printed pages total—will be quietly dropped at a few locations in the county. It’ll include obituaries, a smattering of news, and the public notices required by law to be published in a newspaper. That’s what they’re calling their print edition.

Maybe it checks the right boxes on a legal form, but it doesn’t pass the eye test.

A real newspaper shows up—not just in inboxes, but in mailboxes, on doorsteps, and in the hands of people at lunch counters and living rooms. It delivers more than the bare minimum. It delivers substance. It tells you who won the game, who passed away, who got elected, who got arrested, who’s building what, and who’s spending your tax dollars. It connects the people of a place to one another and to the truth.

A folded flyer isn’t a newspaper. It’s a loophole on copy paper.

This matters because the stakes are real. When we reduce access to public information to a technicality, the public loses. Communities lose accountability. Local businesses lose a platform. Citizens lose the chance to see themselves reflected in the pages of their hometown paper.

A newspaper may be hard to define—but I know one when I see it. And more importantly, I know when it’s gone. Tennessee deserves real newspapers—not just the illusion of one.

Daniel Richardson is the publisher of The Jackson Post and the owner of Richardson Media Group.