BY MILES LAYTON

Though I’ve worked at large and small newspapers over the years, I’ve enjoyed reporting and had more impact at rural papers, maybe making a difference with my time in the sun serving the Lord.   

Yes, working at a large, well-funded newspaper, especially a corporate-owned media outlet with more resources, is nice because of the toys, more staff with experienced editors and a larger audience.  

However, reporting/managing a local rural newspaper allows you to truly see what’s important to the community, not write from a desk inside a cubicle 40 miles away. You’ll see your readers in the town’s only grocery store or at the county fair.  

And there’s the taste of small town stories – they are unique, each and every one, rather than dry, devoid of flavor and meaning. A well-written story from a small paper can gain a large audience faster than an article buried on page 3 at a metropolitan paper.  

Folks ask me, assert that I have bias – I admit that I do. My bias is toward the community and rural affairs. Sometimes that bias runs counter to bigots who are hostile to country folks — people they call “deplorables” who live in “flyover country”. And I’ll say it — just because they did it like you want where you came from, doesn’t mean we should do that here. But there’s no pleasing some people.    

However, having a small town bias also means that you should support those who embrace the community, even the folks who disagree with you. 

I’ve served as editor at many places, with some of my favorite “duty stations” being Chowan and Perquimans counties because of the people and places that I’ve written about in Edenton and Hertford over the years. Other places I’ve worked in small towns in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky – were each rewarding in their own way.  

While in Athens, Ohio, I worked alongside my wife, Nicole, while serving as the Region Editor of many small weeklies across Southeast Ohio. And we won some Ohio News Media Association awards for our work.    

Each community had its own dynamic. The Athens Messenger/Athens News covered a wildly liberal college town, Athens, with its drag shows, Homecoming parades and school pride for Ohio University. Go Bobcats! Loved Athens’ passion for the issues. My daughter, Samantha, graduated from Athens High School, Class of 2024. My youngest son, Joseph, says he wants to go to college there.

Located 30 minutes away was McArthur, a deeply conservative village in rural Vinton County that had its own newspaper, the Vinton-Jackson Courier, where there was no shortage of stories – both good and bad – flowing from that neck of the woods.

My tiny office in McArthur, where I did some of my best work, was around the corner from the hotel that caught on fire Tuesday morning.

For several hours, firefighters from multiple counties, including Athens, where the feature photo for this story comes from, battled the blaze that destroyed Hotel McArthur, which had been closed for a long time but was undergoing active restoration, so it was a point of pride for the town.

As I’ve always said — It’s not the size of the newspaper, it is the size of the story that matters most. 

From the McArthur Fire Department:  

Yesterday at approximately 8:55 a.m., we received a page for heavy smoke coming from Hotel McArthur. McArthur FD responded and made forcible entry into the hotel and immediately encountered heavy smoke. We attempted to locate the fire and quickly found it was in the walls traveling up the building’s studs. Once we located the seat of the fire, we attempted to break through the walls to begin extinguishment. The walls were made of lath and plaster reinforced with chicken wire hindering our attempts to break through and get to the fire. By the time we were able to get to the seat of the fire,  it had made its way through the roof threatening the structural stability. At that point, it was determined we needed to pull all remaining firefighters from the structure and transition from an offensive attack, to a defensive. We ask that the community avoid the building at this time as the investigation as to the cause of the fire is still ongoing through the State Fire Marshal’s Office. As of now, no foul play is suspected.

The community came together to provide bottled water and snacks to the firefighters as they worked hard to not only save the hotel, but to keep the fire from spreading across the small town. This is a story that people will read and talk about for years to come. 

McArthur VFD thanked multiple departments between Athens and Zaleski, Albany to Wellston, as well as Austin Powder for providing a tanker trucker with extra water as well as Bud’s One Stop, and Mama Renies for providing food for first responders.

Then there’s this — thanking the community — “small towns truly come together.”

Lastly, we would like to thank you, the community. Small towns truly come together at their darkest moments and our village had our back yesterday. Whether it was providing drinking water, food, or simply just checking that we were okay, we truly couldn’t have done it without your support. It is our pleasure and honor to serve the people of this village and the surrounding areas.

While in West Virginia, I was editor of the Tyler Star News, a county seat weekly based in Tyler County. One of the state’s leading newspapermen, namesake of West Virginia’s premier journalism award, the Adam R. Kelly Award, was publisher/editor of that paper for many years before he passed away in 1990. The lessons I learned at this paper carried forward time and again at other newspapers.  

Believe it or not, I was editor of the Harlan Enterprise in the heart of coal country in Harlan, Kentucky. Once upon a time, the New York Times owned this newspaper deep in the mountains of Appalachia. The Harlan Enterprise has reported on several big stories over the years, including miners’ unions seeking better wages and working conditions in coal mines. There was also coverage of county fairs, basketball teams and the Poke Sallet Festival. Truly, there is a sense of community pride in Harlan that’s the same in Edenton, Hertford, Columbia, Swan Quarter, Windsor – towns across Northeast NC. 

And now we’re back in Northeast NC — trying to tell stories about the folks in our neck of the woods. They say we’re a “news desert” but I think we’re more than that.

I’ll say it again — it’s not the size of the newspaper, it is the size of the story that matters most. 

If you have news tips, send them to mlayton1969@gmail.com