The Indiana Publisher

Page 8 April 2022 Ed Semmler South Bend Tribune SOUTH BEND — The mas- sive press building that printed the South Bend Tribune for more than two decades is going to be convert- ed into a new home for South Bend City Church. The non-denominational Christian congregation has signed an agreement to purchase the 40,000-square-foot building that sits at the corner of North Lafayette Boulevard and West LaSalle Avenue, directly north of The Tribune's former headquarters at 225 W. Colfax Ave. The congregation will pay $1 million for the structure, which currently belongs to longtime Tribune parent company Schurz Communications, said Jason Miller, lead pastor at South Bend City Church. The deal is expected to close in a couple of months. Later this summer, the church hopes to start a massive renova- tion of the building that could cost anywhere from $3 million to $4.5 million, Miller said, adding that Mishawaka-based Arkos Design is the architect for the project. Starting with discussions in 2016, the church held services at various locations until it began rent- ing space in a former Studebaker building in the South Bend Renaissance District in June 2017, Miller said. However, its lease there is coming to an end in June 2023, so church leaders began wondering whether it should look for a perma- nent location, he said. After considering several pos- sibilities, South Bend City Church focused its efforts on the glass and brick press building that was built in 1994 and continued to print the paper until June 27, 2017 when the work was outsourced to a different location. "It's super solid, it's where we want to be in the downtown area and it even looks like a church," Miller said, adding that the struc- ture offers lots of space for wor- ship, community building and other functions. "We're working right now to figure out how the building can be a real community resource through- out the week, and that might mean sharing space with community part- ners who are working on common good projects," he added. Former South Bend Tribune printing plant could become new home for church This rendering shows the proposed worship area that the South Bend City Church will create when it renovates the former South Bend Tribune Press building. Courtesy photo. See Church, page 11 Mark Bennett Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) Friday nights during high school basketball season got hectic for the sports staffs of the Terre Haute newspapers in the 1970s. "Oh my God, it was crazy," former Tribune sports writer Greg Little recalled. The adrenaline rush of those evenings, and one particular assignment, got Little hooked on community journalism. The old Terre Haute Star and Tribune staffs combined efforts every weekend to craft the Sunday Tribune-Star edition. Tom Reck, the late Star sports editor, sent Little to write "Sunday special" stories for the Sunday sports sec- tion in the late 1970s. The pieces went beyond the points, rebounds and coaches' quick-response com- ments. Little covered the games, but spent extra time talking with those coaches, players and maybe fans, and added some atmosphere and history. "That was more about the people than the games," Little explained. "That had every bit of influence on me. It put the ink in my blood." Nearly 45 years later, Little is the editor of California's old- est continually published weekly newspaper, the Mariposa Gazette. The 63-year-old Clinton native, West Vigo High School gradu- ate and father of four also is the author of a new book, "-30- Why Small-Town American Print Journalism Is Anything But Dead (As Long As the Beancounters Stay Away)." The venerable trade publication Editor & Publisher devoted a podcast interview last August to Little's book. In 2020, E& P also featured Little in its inaugural "15 Over 50: Honoring Leaders Driving the News Industry Forward." Little's book tracks his own career and life, but places the story in the larger context of the newspaper industry's path from its pinnacle in the 1970s to the leaner era corporate ownership in the 21st century. Through those years, Little has worked at papers in Indiana, Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and California. He and his wife, Nicole, bought the Mariposa Gazette in 2016, and she serves as its publisher. The book traces the changes they've faced through their combined 60-plus years in the field. The book's title includes the old newsroom symbol signifying the conclusion of a typewritten story (-30-), as in "no more — the end." Little's message, though, is one of optimism, emphasizing that small-town journalism is vital and has a strong future, with its -30- nowhere in sight. "I guess I'm the eternal opti- mist," Little said by phone earlier this month from the Gazette's newsroom. In the Editor & Publisher podcast interview recorded last summer, host and E& P publisher Mike Blinder tells Little, "You are writing not just a book about local journalism; it's almost like a journey to help anyone who wants to understand the value of what a community newspaper is to a com- munity. They're seeing it through your eyes." To read the full story, visit https://bit.ly/37tgNsh. Ink in his veins, a passion for print journalism: Wabash Valley native's new book details timeless value of small-town newspapers On duty: Former Terre Haute news- paperman Greg Little serves as edi- tor of the Mariposa Gazette in Cali- fornia, a weekly that first published in 1854. Courtesy Mariposa Gazette

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