the-press.com<\/a>; during a major ice storm in 2009, Editor-Publisher Chris Evans ran it on generator power and published a special news flyer with updates on electricity status and aid stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDuring the pandemic, Evans found discrepancies in data from the district health department and coordinated with it to correct the numbers, and the Press was one of 14 Kentucky papers to publish a special vaccination section sent to all households in the county, in cooperation with the Institute, the Kentucky Press Association and UK\u2019s Cooperative Extension Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 2006 episode is an example of Evans\u2019s investigative reporting. He revealed misuse of more than $200,000 by the local economic development director, who was indicted and forced to repay most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a drug bust prompted false, online rumors of shootings and murder, Evans countered them with online postings that carried credibility because they were not anonymous, and because people respect him and his newspaper. \u201cOur task is to be in a position to provide credible information in whatever form people want it in,\u201d he said in 2011. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to embrace technology, understand where your audience is at, and get there\u2014and the credibility you have will draw people back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chris Evans \u201cis everything to this paper, and the paper is everything to him,\u201d Allison Evans wrote. \u201cHe insists that content in The Crittenden Press be hyperlocal. No canned news, no state filler. It\u2019s time-consuming, but it\u2019s important to him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Away from the paper, he has served nearly 30 years on the local park board, where he \u201cessentially serves as the volunteer maintenance man: and orchestrated a major lighting renovation of the park with city, county and school partners to complete the project,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHe has also served in various leadership capacities in his church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cited as a community-journalism exemplar in Harvard University\u2019s Nieman Reports in 2011, Chris Evans described his journalism philosophy simply: \u201cWe are here to serve people. Then he quoted Bryant Williams, the Tennessee publisher for whom he had worked: \u201cThe only higher calling is the ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a time when most newspapers are owned by chains that are struggling to meet profit goals and still provide public service, Chris and Allison Evans have continued their local, independent ownership, even as they have had to reduce staff due to declining revenue, a burden for almost all local newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have never had any desire to sell, but I have to admit that with Chris\u2019s retirement not too many years away, we\u2019ve been talking about an exit plan,\u201d said Allison, who is the paper\u2019s advertising manager. \u201cSadly, seeing the decline of papers in our region that have sold to large conglomerates makes us uneasy. It\u2019s like a parent thinking they, and only they, can adequately take care of their child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sustainability of rural journalism, and the maintenance of local, independent newspaper ownership, are newly adopted goals of the Institute for Rural Journalism, which was founded in the UK College of Communication and Information 20 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Smith Award is named for the late Albert P. Smith Jr., who was the driving force for creation of the Institute, headed its advisory board and was its chair emeritus until his death in March 2021 at the age of 94. He published newspapers in Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, was founding producer and host of KET\u2019s \u201cComment on Kentucky,\u201d and federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. He was the first winner of the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The award will be presented at the Al Smith Awards Dinner Nov. 3 at the Embassy Suites Lexington on Newtown Pike, near Interstate 64\/75. Winners of the Institute\u2019s national Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, to be announced soon, will also be recognized at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previous winners of the Smith Award, and their affiliations at the time, are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2011: Al Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2012: Jennifer P. Brown, Kentucky New Era; and Max Heath, Landmark Community Newspapers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2013: John Nelson, Danville Advocate-Messenger<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2014: Bill Bishop and Julie Ardery, The Daily Yonder<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2015: Carl West, The (Frankfort) State Journal<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2016: Sharon Burton, Adair County Community Voice and The Farmer\u2019s Pride<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2017: Ryan Craig, Todd County Standard, and the late Larry Craig, Green River Republican<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2018: Stevie Lowery, The Lebanon Enterprise<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2019: David Thompson, Kentucky Press Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2020: Becky Barnes, The Cynthiana Democrat<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021: WKMS News, Murray State University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From On Second Thought, the newsletter of the Kentucky Press Association The owners of a weekly newspaper in West Kentucky, who have persevered for almost 30 years in the face of increasing challenges to the industry \u2013 and to them and their community \u2013 are the winners of the 2022 Al Smith Award for public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[63,62,61,18],"class_list":["post-1983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-al-smith-award","tag-community-journalism","tag-crittenden-press","tag-murray-state","eq-blocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1985,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/1985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}