The "Youngstown" Vindicator

Phil Kidd has an excellent post up over at Defend Youngstown discussing the continued lack cooperation between some residents of the suburbs and the City of Youngstown. He provides a response to what can best be described as an "anti-Youngstown" letter to the editor from a rather unenlightened Boardman resident that appeared recently in the Vindicator. Kidd drafted a nice response which was, of course, never published by the paper.

I'll leave the issue at the heart of the discussion to Kidd for now. However, I'd like to move tangentially from his post to talk a little about the Vindicator and its role in all of this. It's of little surprise to me that the Vindicator didn't publish Kidd's response. Sure, a paper certainly can't publish every letter to the editor that they receive, and decisions have to be made with a number of things in mind. However, Kidd's opinions and his approach to issues in Youngstown stands almost in direct opposition to the Vindicator's agenda.

When I was younger, the city paper was called "The Youngstown Vindicator," its title proudly written across the top in Gothic lettering. It had a stately look, a very New York Times-esque look, and it felt like a legitimate newspaper. However, one day, the paper decided to do a complete overhaul, losing the dignified look and replacing it with a more colorful, perhaps "friendly" image that was apparently meant to be more appealing to the public. I'll leave the aesthetics alone. What was most important about the change, though, was that the heading on the top of the paper now read "The Vindicator" rather than "The Youngstown Vindicator." Although that may seem like a small change, it was reflective of a much larger philosophical shift which continues into the present day.

I understand that population shifts in the Valley have required local media outlets to have a more regional focus. I imagine that a great number of Vindicator subscribers live outside the city limits, and therefore have an interest in news that occurs outside the city. That's fine. However, the Vindicator tries to avoid the fact that Youngstown is the center of the Mahoning Valley and that all of the local suburbs are just that- suburbs- whose very existence is tied to that of the city. At its best, the paper treats Youngstown as just another town in their coverage area- on the same level with Niles, Hermitage, or Austintown. At its worst, the paper takes a condescending and isolationist stance toward the city in its reporting- here's what's happening in that awful place up the road. Major positive events in the city are often ignored entirely, while the newspaper chooses instead to run a front-page photo of some meaningless happening in Boardman Park or at the Poland Library. Sports coverage is even worse- one could read the paper for an entire football season and not realize that Rayen or Chaney even exist.

Oddly, the Vindicator still holds its central offices in downtown Youngstown. I imagine it's only a matter of time before the paper finally gives up the ruse and moves out to 224. In the meantime, though, the Vindicator continues to feed into the "suburbs vs. city" mentality that's been crippling this region for decades. As the only real paper in town, the Vindicator has a powerful influence on the perceptions and attitudes of its readership, and they have not handled this responsibility well. What's encouraging, though, is that people are actively seeking out other avenues and outlets for news and updates about the city and the area- most of which are much more, to borrow a phrase, "Pro-Yo." Look down the list of links to the right here. These other sites, professional or not, would not exist if the desire to create and read them wasn't there.

The Vindicator has a long history with the city, and has been there for many years to report on and record the events of the area. However, when it comes to its relationship to Youngstown, the paper behaves more like a jaded child than a loving spouse. Such a negative relationship does little good for either party. As things change and move forward in Youngstown, there's little place for something like the Vindicator.