[ambient music] [insects croaking] [insects chirping] [distant dog barking] - This is the-- one of the type cases that was in the shop.

When the copy was produced on a linotype, sentences were formed letter by letter, [chuckles] which, you know, you just think about that and that's pretty amazing.

This is just a huge piece of my history.

My dad was always working.

He'd bang out editorials all weekend long.

He wrote a lot of editorials.

But there was this whole other part of the newspaper that was the news and the sports and the things that were happening in the community, which were also given as much weight and importance and effort as opinions were.

We have always reported the news that is most important to the people who live here.

It's the news of the community.

[upbeat music] [chatter] [laughter] There's fire everywhere and I've done a lot of this in the last few years.

[radio chatter] A bad day starts about 2 o'clock in the morning.

A good day probably starts at 4:00.

No one else is going to tell the stories that we're telling, nobody.

[crowd cheering] There's all these things that we do on a daily basis that I don't know who's going to do that if the newspaper doesn't.

What happens if nobody's doing this?

[music fades] [insects chirping] This is the assisted living center that you see up here.

And the nursing home they're building below that.

Just recently, we voted to build a new nursing home.

There's a nursing home here that was built 50 years ago and it's falling apart.

I understand this day in a year we're going to be-- - We should open the doors.

- --opening the doors.

- That's the goal.

- We'll put it in print.

We may even put it in the big headline.

Everybody take a shovel full.

That was something we wrote a lot about and supported.

[applause] I think there are things like that that you can be influential in helping to happen that are good things for the community.

OK, 4 and 5, right?

Got that.

They're so-- they were so excited about it.

- I love it.

Oh, there-- is that Norma?

There's Norma.

- I love having all these people looking over my shoulder.

- [chuckles] - I don't even remember asking for this.

- You said, I need help.

- You said, I need help.

We're here to help.

I've been here for 23 years, 23 years, mostly because Laurie is desperate.

We have a good group here.

We all work very well together, even though Cathy and I keep trying to retire.

[chuckles] Yeah, that sort of thing.

And Laurie too, but we have to keep going, huh, Laurie?

LAURIE BROWN: That's right.

Cathy Ricketts, she and I have been friends since the first day of first grade.

We met on the playground, on the edge of the playground where we were both positioned safely away from everybody else.

And it became obvious to me and to her, I think, at the same time, we were both incredibly shy and that we could be shy alone or we could be shy together.

And-- - Right.

- --we've somehow remarkably managed to remain friends all this time, even after Cathy worked with me, which is a real miracle.

- My brothers and I worked here as child laborers-- - [chuckles] - --when it was, you know-- - [chuckles] - --when everything was manual labor at the paper.

And so-- - These roots run deep, don't they?

- They run deep, yes.

[intriguing music] LAURIE BROWN: This is a legacy business.

My parents bought it in '47 and it's been in the family since.

It was just part of the fabric of life for me.

I'm the baby sitting in my father's lap.

This is rare.

We didn't do family photos.

I mean, there wasn't time to do family photos.

I admired my dad enormously, but he wasn't present the way some dads are.

Our family time was sitting at the dinner table.

That was what you did, you were home for dinner.

And we sat and we talked.

We talked about our day.

We talked about politics.

We talked about what was happening in the world.

That was a treasure and it really informed everything I've done since.

[distant honking] Canadian Record.

May help you?

Every week, we try to put out the red flag first just to let them know it's paper day and the green flag to let them know that it's here.

This is the day that people come in the office and we talk about nothing.

It's sort of the weekly checkup, you know, check in on people.

- What's going on, young man?

Are you staying out of trouble?

- Yes, sir.

- Because the older you get, the easier it gets.

[chuckling] CUSTOMER: So what were you groundbreaking?

- The nursing home.

CATHY: We're securing our future.

[chuckling] CUSTOMER: Yeah, you are, true.

- But the good news is we got them on record saying, we will be doing the ribbon cutting next year on this day.

- This is the heartbeat of the town.

She has institutional memory but the Record is a memory that is in print and will not go to the nursing home.

LAURIE BROWN: It may.

We may be producing it from there.

- Well, you might be doing it.

But it is an institution.

It's not just a business.

It has to be a business in order to survive.

But that's not his primary function.

CATHY: No, it really isn't.

LAURIE BROWN: You have no idea.

- Yeah.

[chuckling] - Hey, Ms. Ada.

MS. ADA: Well, Hello, sweetie.

What you doing girl?

- Well, we have done for the band.

So this is what we had done last year and I was just wondering if you would like to stay with the black and white, or would you like to do the color?

- What's the difference in the price?

- Well, you've got $67.20 for the color and then we've got $47.20 for the black and white.

- We can go... We can go the color.

- OK. - That'll work.

- OK, all right.

- Great.

Thank you, Ms. Ada.

- And so these are the classified displays and these are just the regular word ads.

LAURIE BROWN: We sure don't have many of them anymore.

- They've picked up a little bit, but yeah, they're still kind of slim compared to what they were a long time ago.

LAURIE BROWN: Well, they used to be a huge source of revenue.

[music playing] LAURIE BROWN: 90% of our revenue comes from advertising, and that model is failing.

They have a Facebook page now, the radio station does.

And they're posting all these ads on their Facebook page.

I'm sure they're not charging for them.

I mean, it's just one more thing that takes away revenue.

You know, you can just watch small town newspapers just dry up and blow away.

There have been weeks when I wasn't sure we were going to be able to keep going when I was publishing a newspaper that was costing me more money than I was making.

♪ I've looked at trying to sell it.

Newspapers with small circulation in small rural communities aren't exactly the hot ticket.

- Mary.

Oh.

There it is.

OK, I got it now.

Hey.

How's it going?

[chuckles] - Don't get too close to me.

I swear to God, I will break it.

MARY SMITHEE: Laurie Ezell Brown.

- Laurie Ezell Brown has been up since 3 o'clock this morning.

I decided I would do an ad letting people know the newspaper is for sale.

I don't feel great about it, but I don't want to just drop dead at my desk.

I don't want you to drop dead either because that's what my dad did.

MARY SMITHEE: I've been worried about that for a while actually.

- Me dropping dead?

LAURIE BROWN: Oh, yeah.

MARY SMITHEE: Look at that.

It's an early night.

It's way before midnight.

Awesome.

You did good.

- I did work a lot.

MARY SMITHEE: You did good, boss.

Yay.

I don't know if I'm getting this at all.

[engines whirring] [birds chirping] - I'm Gabriel, the heir to the newspaper whatever.

- Tell them your whole name, Gabe.

- Gabriel Freedom Brown from the Janis Joplin song.

- Yeah.

Freedom's just another word.

- Yeah.

LAURIE BROWN: Gabriel could easily do this job.

But I've never bugged him, have I?

GABRIEL BROWN: No.

- Never will.

- I just watched my grandparents and my mother not have any time ever to do anything other than the newspaper.

- You weren't completely abandoned though.

We did do things.

- I know.

[soft music] - This is a picture of me and Gabe.

He was about three years old.

He was a very cute kid.

He's cute now but, yeah, he was pretty adorable.

I love this picture.

We went down to the office and he sat at granddad's typewriter.

Gabe grew up having a very controversial grandfather as editor of the local newspaper and then having a very controversial mother as editor of the newspaper.

Every once in a while when I'm feeling overwhelmed, Gabe says, I should help you.

I'm like, Gabe, it's not fair to you or to your family to feel like you're being guilt tripped into pursuing it.

I think he has a huge respect for what the Canadian Record is and what its history is.

A lot of newspaper owners, they're like me.

They don't have a family who wants to take over, which is sort of what you counted on.

- What do you got for me?

- 900 last night.

Lots going on.

Lots going on.

- See y'all.

MARY SMITHEE: I gotta come by and see your mom at some point and congratulate her.

- Well, thank you very much.

- It's just good to have a newspaper in your town, especially as small as we are.

You do a good job.

Y'all do a good job.

OK, well, I'm moseying on.

I'll see you at homecoming.

Love you.

Love you.

Bye.

[band music] LAURIE BROWN (VOICEOVER): Football in Canadian is everything.

If you want to rob a home in Canadian, Texas, rob it on Friday night because everybody's gone.

[somber music] My dad was covering a playoff football game, had a heart attack, and he collapsed.

He was working too much.

You know, he probably should have lived longer and he could have maybe lived longer if he'd let up a little bit.

I mean, dad was stubborn.

He was a stubborn man.

He did it his way.

The Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement changed him.

And at the same time, this community was becoming more conservative.

He took some very difficult stands in the newspaper that were not very popular here.

The house would be vandalized, rocks thrown.

There was one time when a small bomb was set off underneath my bedroom window actually.

I'll never forget that.

Our politics do not reflect the prevailing politics of this community and they never have.

MAN: Keeping Texas red is the number one priority.

We don't have a problem keeping Texas red in the Texas panhandle.

I tell folks I'll never have a general election because we don't have any Democrats.

LAURIE BROWN: This County voted 87% for Trump in 2016.

Trump wins election he denounced as rigged.

He set new and far lower standards for qualification to the nation's chief executive office with his crude language, his tendency to incite and encourage violence, and his oft repeated insults towards women.

I think there are many issues that totally transcend national politics and partisan politics, and they're really just about making this a good place to live.

[bell peals] - National news, you don't know who to trust.

We know her.

We can trust that she's going to report the news to us.

- All in favor, aye.

- Aye.

- Aye.

- Laurie goes to all the meetings and people know what's going on because she goes.

- Opposition to corporate hog factory develops at Lipscomb County meeting.

This was a big meeting.

Mainly, it was just educating people, calling the politicians to account for it.

People started following our coverage and we started getting lots of letters to the editor.

That debate grew based on the reports we'd written.

The County commissioners actually voted unanimously not to invite or incentivize the corporate hog farms.

That was a big deal and it sent a really strong signal to these companies, this isn't the place you want to come.

I've tried to make this effort to find some common ground that we have and, how can I move that slightly forward?

- The paper does make us think and it informs us about some issues that maybe we're not aware of.

- And they have different viewpoints than we do or other people do.

But we recognize that and we like that.

LAURIE BROWN: We've had people who canceled advertising because of things I've written.

There have been some called-in threats.

But people come to me all the time and say, please don't ever stop doing this.

And so it's kind of hard to turn away from that.

[birds chirping] [gavel bangs] GEORGE BRIANT: I'm gonna call a meeting of Hemphill County Commissioners Court to order, Monday, August the 10th, 2020 9:00 AM, COVID-19 matters.

Things are moving on.

It seems to have slowed down here a little bit.

Still no hospital admissions.

You know, we're fortunate not to have had anybody admitted to a hospital, or maybe the nature of the virus is changing, it's not as serious.

LAURIE BROWN: We're in Commissioner's Court yesterday morning, and George Briant announces that we have had some cases here, but they're in control, and fortunately, we've had no one hospitalized.

So I walk out.

Cathy's sent me a text saying, has COVID, and she's in the hospital.

I have made a conscious effort not to politicize it, though God knows the temptation has been huge.

Right now, I just want people to have good information.

We understand that there have been some positive tests at the nursing home, or these people who were in proximity to the residents.

Why can't you get rapid tests for this?

That really is the problem.

There is no national standard, national set of protocols, national source of materials.

We're a United States for a reason, right?

But that's no longer true.

- Oh, it's all awful!

The thing that has changed during all this is the tension, the ugly in the world.

The media is just taking a rap, you know.

And it's not fair.

It's not fair.

- OK, we need a headline.

MARY SMITHEE: The yellow of the sky was amazing.

Then you walk out, and then you see the-- - Not yellow.

Gold.

- Gold!

- How about golden showers?

- [screams & laughter] MARY SMITHEE: OK, I dare you.

I double dog dare you.

LAURIE BROWN: Oh, gosh.

Okey doke.

LAURIE BROWN: I have, too.

We may only talk about how hot it is outside, but it's something.

[gentle music] This is where it starts.

- What?

- "Superintendent Pulliam has reported that they've had their first COVID positive on the football team.

They are quarantining now to determine how much exposure there's been."

People need to know that this is spreading.

This is happening.

We are about to start school, and this is serious.

[birds chirping] [wind howling] WOMAN (ON AUDIO RECORDING): It is not a time to relax.

Each have another month of potential waves coming with the holidays and the football games.

LAURIE BROWN: We'd have two or three cases.

And then those just grew exponentially.

And we've also had some deaths.

In August, we had nine active.

And then suddenly, from 12 to 26, from 26 to 54.

Wow.

But then it just kept climbing.

It's over 65.

It would help me a lot if you would mark the ads that you know we're not gonna have.

Yeah.

And rather than think about shutting down his shop, it's gotten some bad debt.

That's out.

LAURIE BROWN: Well, I know it's really hard on you because you have to hear this from people.

And you have to go ask them.

I had a feeling this was coming.

We're just gonna try and keep the doors open.

We know lots of businesses that are closing, and people who are getting laid off, and it's all hitting, really, right now.

And it's not looking good.

It's just, you know, it's just hard knowing how many people are gonna be in trouble.

PAULA KAY HARGROVE (ON PHONE): I prayed about it this morning.

I asked God to help me tell the story that can help somebody else.

I was diagnosed with COVID October 1.

Sure enough, he's got pneumonia, and they're putting him in the hospital.

He's like Paula.

I can't do this you've got to get here he said but I can't breathe I'm scared he said I thought I was invincible to this I've always been with him every step of the way, every step of the way.

I never had to leave his side.

- [sighs] Are you OK?

Do you need a-- you need a break?

You need to stop?

PAULA KAY HARGROVE (ON PHONE): No.

[sniffles] you better pay attention.

If you're immune suppressed, if you're elderly, you better pay attention.

This thing is real.

And it's-- and it's mean.

LAURIE BROWN: Now, it's tougher than I even expected.

[keypad tapping] JENNY FRAZIER (ON PHONE): Well, I don't know.

I think everybody thinks they're above it.

- There was not a living soul in there not-- that was wearing a mask, except for us, and it was weird.

JENNY FRAZIER (ON PHONE): Yes, they look at you like-- - Yes!

Like we're somehow subversive.

The fact that journalism is being denounced, there's no longer much value placed on the truth, is just about the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life.

I am terrified.

They didn't want me to report that Biden won that election.

WOMAN: I know.

- And they didn't want me the next week.

They didn't want me the next week, or the next week.

And by God, the electoral college has voted, and Joe Biden is gonna be our president, and I'm going to make sure it's in the [censored] newspaper.

And that's it.

I don't understand.

These are people I care about, I respect, I've grown up with, people who have been kind to me.

I just am having trouble coming to terms with it.

[children chattering] BOY: Yay!

[children cheering] I think maybe one thing that's helping community right now, as silly as it sounds, is the football team, working its way up the playoffs to the state championships.

CHILDREN: (CHANTING) GO Wildcats!

Go Wildcats!

ANNOUNCER (ON TV): We have passed on.

- A lot of false starts today.

- Oh.

REFEREE (ON TV): False start.

LAURIE BROWN: I have to be here so that once the game is over, someone can send me the story and the pictures, and I can finish our paper.

- Oh!

Um, [chuckles] WOMAN (ON TV): I'll send it back to you.

ANNOUNCER (ON TV): All right.

Thanks very much.

LAURIE BROWN: Here's people just like them, probably people they know.

A lot of them know, and they're saying, we didn't take it seriously.

And look, you know, look at what it did.

I think it's a good message.

MARY SMITHEE: Come on!

No!

Go, go, go.

Oh!

ANNOUNCER (ON TV): Step away.

We're gonna keep pushing the pedal down.

- You want to come watch?

Go, baby, go!

Woo!

[cheering on tv] LAURIE BROWN: Oh, there he is.

This guy trying to stop him.

That's really great photo.

MARY SMITHEE: Love it!

LAURIE BROWN: There are people just like me doing this all over the country.

Most of them for not much money, and most of them investing lots of time in it and lots of their heart in it.

It's getting more difficult to sustain those businesses, and I am not unique.

[somber music] "Today, the free and independent press, long the trusted watchdog of local and state government, is slowly vanishing from the American landscape.

The freefall of newspaper readership was precipitated by the emergence of online news and social media, and the subsequent crash in advertising revenue.

A new generation demanded free news and 24-hour updates.

While the sheer volume of news grew, the vital connection between reader and reporter, the trusted relationship between news and the community it served, eroded.

Newspapers began to disappear in increasingly alarming numbers.

Not yet quite so obvious has been the slow but relentless disruption of community and of the delicate, but critical balance of power that a well-informed and engaged public can exert over its increasingly unaccountable and unresponsive government."

It is depressing.

[wind whipping] MARY SMITHEE: I'm gonna try to leave hopefully after I get the paper done tomorrow to go to Kansas, to look for a place to live.

LAURIE BROWN: With the oil and gas business around here in limbo, her husband had to look elsewhere, and so he found a job in Kansas.

MARY SMITHEE: Well, I told Laurie I would work till the end of May.

This is my family.

Knowing all the customers, and they know me, and I was young and skinny when I came to work here.

[chuckles] I'm old and fat now.

I don't know.

It's gonna be hard.

It's gonna be hard.

So this has been my purpose for a long time, so-- LAURIE BROWN: Three people have left.

First, our very good sportswriter and graphic designer.

Then my friend and longtime co-worker, Cathy.

She had medical things she needed to get done.

She needed to spend time with her mom.

She needed to retire.

And now Mary, who is the life of the Canadian Record, both of them have just been a key part of the newspaper, and a key part of who I am and what I'm able to do.

And I really can't imagine doing it without them.

I've been doing the writing, photography, editing.

One person where there used to be three people.

It's gonna take a physical toll on me.

It feels like it already is.

So I just think I've got to make a life change.

MAN (ON VIDEO): The reason we're here today is one word-- sustainability.

How do we sustain our values and our traditions?

Hell, how we sustain our ranches?

Welcome to the 2022 Hemphill County Beef Cattle Conference.

LAURIE BROWN: I've been trying to find someone to take it over.

I've been working on it for a while now, and nobody wants to come to the Panhandle.

Anyway, I'm sort of struggling right now.

- So I can't even imagine.

- Well, it's tough.

I really thought I had something worked out, and-- [somber music] [camera shutter clicking] - I don't want to just do it till I can't do it anymore.

Do it till I die because I want to make sure that it has a life beyond me, beyond my family.

It would be devastating to close this business.

I would feel that I had failed.

[insects chirping] [pages turning] [street sounds] I got home very late and very tired.

I was ready to just toss it all in.

And this was in my inbox.

"I've tossed around the idea of emailing you for a while.

The first time was when you wrote about the gap between what most Christian voters stand for and President Trump.

I want you to know that you speak for me and most of my friends.

These past two years have been completely flabbergasting.

The basic ideals and principles our parents instilled in us are completely absent.

I don't know what I am anymore.

Fed up, disgusted, sad.

All of this was to say thank you.

There's a group of women here who appreciate your work.

We need your work, please don't stop."

Let me think about that one.

All right.

That's excellent.

Thank you.

"I appreciate the stubborn tenacity in which you and your staff continue to print truth."

- She used her profession to help the cause, getting this built.

LAURIE BROWN: The Canadian Record is the linchpin in which our community is based.

Keep pushing us to be better."

It was pretty amazing.

WOMAN: And what do you think after you read-- - I didn't quit.

I didn't quit.

I couldn't quit.

You can't quit.

[uplifting music] ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Support for Reel South is provided by the ETV Endowment ♪ and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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