Newspapers write the stories of small towns. For generations, their newsprint has informed locals of goings on – of major events, of their leaders’ activities, but also just of daily life. They also created a sense of connection in rural communities where people may live far apart.
In relatively recent years, many Ozarks papers have been gobbled up by ownership groups. Those acquisitions proclaimed the benefits of consolidated efficiency and that the region’s coverage would remain the same. Facing increased costs and drive for revenue, those promises often proved empty, resulting in smaller newsrooms and less content. There are obituaries, too – for the papers, not people.
According to the 2025 State of Local News Report, “almost 40% of all local U.S. newspapers have vanished” since the project’s start in 2005 – “leaving 50 million Americans with limited or no access to a reliable source of local news.”
Yet the story isn’t finished. In a growing number of Ozarks communities, locals have reclaimed — or stepped in to buy — a handful of legacy newspapers.
One of those publications is in Ozark County, Missouri, where three generations of women – some related by blood, others by bond – produce the Ozark County Times. In 2025, the weekly paper celebrated 10 years back in independent community hands.
“A lot of it was fear that a corporation was going to come and buy it, and then it would just be gone, you know? I mean, they just disappear,” said Norene Prososki, the Times’s owner, of a motivation behind her buying the newspaper.
“A lot of the local newspapers we know of that are getting bought by big corporations are not doing very well,” added Jenny Yarger, Prososki’s daughter and the paper’s advertising leader.
Her words are followed by Lorene Loftis, the family’s matriarch, who helps deliver the paper: “And (those corporations) don’t care about the local people.”
Newspapers are available in the Ozark County Times’s office – paid for on the honor system. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)
Setting the Stage in Ozark County
Ozark County, Missouri, is a rural, 745-square-mile rectangle along the Missouri-Arkansas line. It’s home to about 8,500 people (per the 2020 U.S. Census), five school districts, a number of villages, and Gainesville, its county seat, where about 750 residents live.
A lot about Gainesville feels like Andy Taylor’s Mayberry. It’s the type of place where, when it’s warm, local growers spend the day sitting on the square with homegrown produce and products for folks to buy. In the fall, it comes alive with square dancers and outhouse races during its “Hootin an Hollarin” festival, a tradition since 1961.
The newspaper is headquartered just steps from the 1939 courthouse, built with assistance from the Works Progress Administration. The square is still a bustling place, complete with an auto parts store, two thrift shops, a bakery, salons, a museum-and-culture hub called the Ozark County Historium, and a pharmacy. The bank, dating to 1894, is still led by local hands and now serves the region from its Gainesville headquarters.
The bottom line: Roots run deep here.
Generations of those families have faded in and out since the newspaper’s start in 1883. It evolved through a number of owners and mergers, including decades in the hands of Ruby Robins, another female journalist who long led the paper after her husband died in the 1960s.
The Ozark County Times’s office is shown circa 1908. One of the men is thought to be longtime Times owner Earle Ebrite. (Courtesy of the Ozark County Times)
Prososki’s first memories of the Times were made during this era: She would read it when she visited her grandfather, who was a big fan of the paper.
“We lived in the city, and we would come down here and visit, and I would read that paper and think it was so neat,” she recounted. “They would talk about ‘So-and-so came for dinner’ in the correspondent columns, and all the high school sports and everything. I just always really liked it, but I never thought I would be working here.”
By the late 1980s, the Times was owned by Dalton Wright, an Ozarks newsman based about 100 miles from Gainesville who at one time acquired several regional papers.
That was who owned it when Prososki began working at the Times in the early ‘90s. She had settled in the area, and one day, the paper’s former manager changed her life: He asked if she’d like to become an advertising salesperson.
“I’ve always liked to write, but I never really thought I would work at a newspaper,” Prososki said. “I was so shy, I didn’t know if I wanted to do that, but I came, and I actually really loved it.”
A few years at the Times led her to another paper, a larger “daily” about 30 minutes away, before returning to the Times as its general manager in the late ‘90s. That led to a role as publisher, and eventually a proposal: Would she be interested in buying the paper?
She said yes, alleviating the fear that it might end up owned by others that would not keep its local focus. It was not the only one of Wright’s papers that ultimately went back into local hands. And even today, he and his family still own the paper in his own hometown.
An article in the Times announced the sale. “We’ll just keep working like we always have, doing our best to put out a good publication for Ozark County,” Prososki said back then. “I’m thankful to Dalton for giving me this opportunity. There’s nothing I would rather do than work with the staff at this newspaper in the community I love.”
A decade later, that effort continues through a small-but-mighty staff of Prososki, Yarger, and Loftis; Jessi Dreckman, the paper’s editor; Regina Wynn Mozingo, who handles circulation and graphic design; and retired editor Sue Ann Jones, who contributes feature content.
Jessi Dreckman, the paper’s editor, grew up locally and began working at the paper years ago as an intern. Today, she is the primary lead on the paper’s content. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)
Covering the Evolving Story of a Small Town
Despite its largely homogeneous population – the 2020 U.S. Census notes that 94% of the county is exclusively white, and that more than 82% of people own their homes and more than 98% speak English exclusively – Ozark County is a place with people of differing backgrounds and traditions.
For decades, the largely conservative place has also been home to adherents of the back-to-land movement that started in the 1970s. It continues today through at least two intentional communities, including one that’s received national attention and gained fame for its nut butters, and community creation missions such as Flotsam Farm, a rural hub for local music and weekly potluck dinners.
Those contrasts aren’t lost on the newspaper, which works to represent its community.
Recently, The Times wrote multiple stories about the Ozark County Jail’s role in housing detainees accused of immigration violations. Even in the small town, the paper has a watchdog mission of keeping neighbors informed about how state and national realities affect their community.
“I just think there are so many things that could be going on in the community that nobody would even know were going on,” Yarger said. “People could just be getting away with things, and nobody would have a clue.”
That charge can be a challenge, especially given the close-knit realities of the small community. Having set standards helps. For example, Dreckman says that they always do a story about felony cases filed in Ozark County. But they probably won’t put it on the front page.
“All of us have many sleepless nights when you feel bad about having to run a (negative) story,” Prososki said. “It kills us. We’re all really soft-hearted, and we have to try to pretend that we don’t know the people. So that we’re not biased. But when it’s someone’s grandson, and you love their grandma, it’s hard.”
In terms of resources and in typical Ozarks fashion, the paper works with what they have. They always attend Gainesville City Council and Ozark County Commission meetings. However, with five school districts in the county, the staff can’t cover all of those board meetings. In those cases, and for other content, they rely on submissions and follow up when necessary.
“We also have a lot of contributors, which I think is really important,” Dreckman said. “There’s just not enough of us to go to everything. So generally we can say, ‘Can you take photos while you’re there?’ Almost everyone is very willing to help us in any way they can.”
Social media is a factor, too – not necessarily as a competitor, but as a starting point and a tool. Dreckman says her goal for the paper is to go beyond what someone sees in a Facebook post. And, in some cases, it’s how the small staff stays engaged across a wide area.
“We use social media a lot to stay in contact with people, and we see something interesting, we’ll use that to get in contact and to develop a relationship there,” Prososki said. “I think that’s the main thing: You have to be really involved in the community.”
Looking to the Future
The Times website doesn’t have a paywall as many publications do, nor do its leaders charge to publish obituaries, a common source of revenue at many community newspapers. Instead, their revenue model is largely based on subscriptions and advertising. The business model has worked so far, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t concerns for the future.
“This paper has been in business since 1883. We’re profitable now, but I am like, ‘Will we be in 10 years?’ I don’t know,” Prososki said. It’s a reality that leads to brainstorming around what else they can do to generate revenue. (And maybe one of those options is, indeed, adding a paywall to the website.)
In addition to the weekly paper, the Times creates four quarterly standalone publications: One exclusively focuses on local history; another on readers’ recipes; another as a guide for the annual Hootin an Hollarin festival; and the Real Ozarks, a vacation guide to the region. Those supplemental publications help provide both advertising revenue and community goodwill, and they are distributed for free.
The special editions have been a win-win-win: The community looks forward to the publications, the advertisers get more eyeballs, and the paper generates another stream of revenue.
“It’s a big boost – we would struggle without those,” Prososki said.
The Ozark County Times prints four special publications annually, one of which focuses on local history. These publications have been a great financial support to the paper. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)
The Times does offer online advertising, but as with many small, rural newspapers, print is still important.
“In rural Missouri, there still isn’t reliable internet access for everyone,” said Chad Stebbins, executive director of the Missouri Press Association. “We point out that a lot of senior citizens haven’t yet been on the internet. My 89-year-old father has never been online, but he reads the Joplin Globe religiously.”
That leads to its own logistical challenges (and creative solutions, like the Times staff literally driving papers to local post offices so readers get papers in a timely fashion). Other concerns are tied to the cost and location of printing.
For example, the Times has its paper printed in Springfield, Missouri, the region’s largest city, about 90 miles away. Many presses that printed smaller newspapers have shut down in recent decades.
“We started 2025 with 13 (presses in Missouri), and now we’re down to 11,” Stebbins said, noting that some Missouri newspapers are now being printed out of state. “It’s a huge concern, because when you have fewer printing plants, you have greater competition, and prices go up. The printing costs are just exorbitant in some cases.
“You hate to see that business leave the state,” Stebbins said, “but you know it’s a very common theme that you’ll go wherever you know you get the best price.”
Stebbins said bills have been introduced in the Missouri legislature’s House and Senate that would give Missouri printing plants a tax credit. “We’re advocating for that,” he said.
Another evolving financial question – one that faces newspapers beyond Missouri – is around legal notices, information that by law must be printed in a local paper, such as the language of proposed ordinances, call for bids, and announcement of public meetings. For some newspapers, those “public notices” are a source of reliable income.
Even though Stebbins said Missouri hasn’t faced the same threat as other states – aside from a niche focus on self-storage units, which follow a similar “public notice” model – the fact that it is a concern remains: What are the next steps if the fragile revenue model changes again?
And how, in a world where distractions are plentiful, are local readers drawn in and motivated to care about what’s happening enough to support it?
Regina Wynn Mozingo handles the Times’s circulation and graphic design. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)
Designing for the Tomorrow of Rural Journalism
It goes back to being authentically local.
There’s a collective community interest in seeing the good. It might not feel like seeing kids’ pictures and school updates are important in the long run, but it plays a role in helping us see the good around us. And, as we become hyper-aware of every clickbait and negative reality in the wider world, those reminders matter.
Dreckman recounted a story she heard from a local man who compared the paper to a long-gone restaurant where locals used to drink coffee and visit:
“He’s like, ‘There really isn’t that anymore. But I feel like the newspaper kind of serves as that (place). You bring Ozark County stuff together, so it feels like it is a community.’”
That’s part of the reason Prososki has never taken on any other publications besides the Times, even as nearby papers have closed or sold to out-of-the-area owners. She’s thought about it, but ultimately has decided against expanding
“We couldn’t do as good a job there as we do here,” Prososki said, “because we’re not so invested (in other communities).”
“It would be hard,” Dreckman added of covering a new coverage footprint. “I mean, you could still go to the commissioners meeting, or go to the school events, but so much of our news just comes from us knowing people and what’s going on in their lives. So I think that would be hard for me to do anywhere else but here.”
That’s a win for Ozark County, where the Times remains hyper-focused on it every week. It’s a contrasting loss for other places, where there’s not even a publication to place an obituary.
“Sue Ann once said that we’re doing a scrapbook every week for Ozark County,” Prososki said. “I’ll tell you when I really feel like it’s really important – when I have to look up something in the old editions. And I flip through there, and I see all these people I know, and all of that is in black and white. It’s there for generations to look back.
“I just feel like, gosh, if we weren’t here, there would be no one to record any of this. So I do think it’s important to be writing that history of your county every week. Otherwise, it’s just going to be gone.”
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