Jeremiah Ariaz, the author of “The Kansas Mirror: The Fourth Estate in the Heart of America,” has recently photographed newspaper offices across Kansas.
With a population of just under 2,000, Marion is a typical Kansas town with something that is increasingly uncommon among rural communities: a weekly newspaper — this one in business since 1869. The red brick office of the Marion Country Record stands across the street from the District Courthouse, a reminder of the newspaper’s role as a government watchdog.
Above the front entrance is the masthead logo: an American flag over an outline of Marion County. A red newspaper stand is placed near the front door, but townspeople are more likely to walk in to buy their copies from the front desk for a dollar, depositing their money in the jar next to the latest edition.
Eric Meyer, the Record’s editor and a member of the family that has owned the paper for decades, taught journalism at the University of Illinois until returning to Marion during the pandemic, when he stepped in to help at the Record and care for his elderly mother.
Meyer and his family had once considered selling the Record, but when they saw what had happened to other papers absorbed by newspaper chains, they decided to preserve local ownership.
Inside the Record’s office, a mounted front page of a past edition that won a Kansas Press Association award rests against a wall. “Snakebit: Dad-daughter trip nearly a disaster” reads a headline teaser next to a photo of a young girl’s bitten ankle and toes that are covered with notations drawn onto her skin by doctors. Another image shows a toddler with her tongue sticking out for the page seven story, “Y is for … Yoga and its newest young fans.” The middle of the page displays a large close-up photo of a mountain lion, its teeth exposed and paw reaching toward the camera, illustrating an article about the sale of a gun and taxidermy collection. Another story describes the light sentence — less than nine years — given to a 55-year-old man convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl. It’s a jarring collection of articles that reminds readers that small towns are not always bucolic.
The fall of local journalism has been precipitous — a source of heartbreak and concern for many. I’ve spent two years photographing newspaper offices across my home state of Kansas. In Marion, these concerns — about community, division, democracy and First Amendment rights — have collided.
What happens to a democracy without a free press? On Friday, law enforcement officers raided the office of the Marion County Record, as well as the homes of its owners and a city councilwoman, seizing computer equipment, routers and cellphones. This occurred after Meyer and one of his reporters were ejected from a community meeting with a state representative held at a restaurant whose owner sought to ban the media. On Wednesday, Marion police were ordered to return all the things they had seized from the newspaper.
Meyer believes the raid was payback for the paper’s coverage of local politics and its investigation into allegations of abuse by the Marion police chief.
Since hearing news of the raid, I’ve revisited these pictures, trying to imagine such drama unfolding in this humble space. The office exemplifies these institutions — the folks who work in them and the role they play in their communities. I remember the Record office and, in particular, a Kansas state seal that hangs on a faded stucco wall. Just above eye level are the words Ad Astra Per Aspera — to the stars through difficulties.