Small-Town Newspaperman

University of Maryland journalism Professor Sandra Banisky writes: 

“The publisher of my hometown paper, The Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican-American (winner of the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service 1939, still on its masthead), died over the weekend. He was 87 and at his desk until last month. This from his obit:

“His responses to readers, too, were legendary in both their manners and bluntness. ‘I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with our newspaper,’ Pape wrote to a reader who complained about too much negative news in 2017. ‘If the country is going to hell in a hand basket, I feel it is important that our readers know it.’” 

—From obituary by Tracey O’Shaughnessy, reporter, “William J. Pape II, editor and former publisher of the Republican-American, dies,” The Republican-American, April 20, 2019.

• Editorial Comment: That’s a public service.

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