NewsBeat

May 2023 NewsBeat 5 that news printed in the Dem- ocrat is true. When rumors about a local development swirled around town, The Democrat nailed down the details and printed the story. "I had people tell me 'I can believe it now that I've read in in the Democrat'," Stabbert said. The Stabbert family has also long been involved in the well-being of newspapers statewide. Stabbert, like his grandfather before him, has also served as president of the New York Press Association. "My grandfather was president in 1959 and I was in 2004." The Democrat is successful, Stabbert said, because it fills a very big niche in the Sullivan County community. "As long as we keep covering news peo- ple want to have, stay hyper-local and don't compete with outside media, we'll be offering our readers value." "Our mission is to tell the stories that matter the most to our communi- ties," said Derek Kirk, the Democrat's editor. Judy Patrick is vice president for editorial development at the New York Press Association. 23,000. Special sections, 56 in all, are also a big part of the operation as well as an occasional book. "We did one book of my grandmother's poems," Stabbert said in example, "and a trivia book for one of our columnists." For the past year, they have also produced a Spanish-language monthly publication, Hoy En Sullivan, a free tab- loid dropped primarily in population centers. "We saw that about 15 percent of Sullivan County's population was Span- ish speaking and we thought we'd try and reach that market," he said. The response has been positive, especially among advertisers, he said. As publisher, Stabbert believes it's important to be involved in the com- munity as much as he can. He has, for example, been a Kiwanis member for 37 years and served on the boards of SUNY Sullivan and the local economic development council. "It's important to stay involved," Stabbert said. The result is trust and confidence That he would never change a single word," Stabbert said. Sullivan County is geographi- cally large (1,100 square miles), which can be a logistical chal- lenge to cover. There are 15 towns, six villages, eight school districts and one county government on the newsroom's plate. With a staff of 25 full- and part-time employees, the Sullivan County Demo- crat publishes twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) and has a circulation of In 2016, the staff of the Sullivan County Democrat gathered for this photo in front of the office building. Shirley and Fred Stabbert Jr.

• Cover