Happy to report that after a lapse of a few years, I'm once again a Chariton newspaper subscriber.
I've felt mildly guilt for years about letting that subscription lapse --- the local staff always has worked hard and deserved support. And I missed its local news content.
Besides, my great-great-grandparents, John and Isabelle Redlingshafer, arrived in Lucas County during the year Chariton's first newspaper, The Patriot, was founded and one of the first things they did was subscribe. Some of my families already were here and others arrived later, but all subscribed as the years passed to one or more of the Chariton newspapers (at one time, three were published on the same day each week: the Patriot, the Leader (aka Democrat sometimes) and The Herald.
The deal-breaker turned out to be the editorializing of the former publisher --- a constant drumbeat week after week of right-wing politics and homophobia.
One year, when the renewal notice arrived, I asked myself why I was paying for that --- and stopped.
Even when that publisher --- who had never lived in Lucas County --- retired a year or two ago, his column continued --- until quite recently, when it stopped.
There have been many changes. Financial burdens imposed by the pandemic resulted in consolidation of our two weeklies --- Leader on Tuesdays and Herald-Patriot on Thursday --- into one, The Leader, published on Fridays. The Chariton Newspapers building was sold and the staff moved into an office on the square.
But we still have a newspaper --- and that's an important component of any smallish town still fortunate enough to have one (the absentee owners of our neighbor Centerville's Iowegian, for example, closed it down).
So I'm happy to be a subscriber again.
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