Community newspaper put to rest after 59 years of service

Ron Dupont stood before a lecture hall of journalism students last week and told them local newspapers are stronger than ever.

In the back of his mind, he knew his community newspaper was struggling, but he'd make it work. Week after week, he'd scrimp and cut.

But Dupont, owner, publisher and editor of The North Florida Herald, did the math and knew there was nothing left.

The numbers said 59 years of history were about to end. The numbers said his newspaper was bankrupt.

After several lean years, local businesses had cut back the frequency and size of their ads as they lost business due to the sluggish economy.

Dupont said he needed $120,000 to keep the paper running through December 2012.

The day he realized there wasn't enough money to survive, he sat in his Kia minivan with his 6-year-old son, Tripp, and knew what was about to happen: He'd let his interns go. He'd sell his computers. He'd lose his house.

He drove home to his wife and told her, "The week is finally here."

Dupont announced the paper's closing Sunday in an email to prospective interns. On Monday, he wrote the paper's obituary.

"It really feels like a friend has died," he said.

Founded by a husband and wife in 1952, the paper was formerly known as The High Springs Herald and is considered a staple of Florida's "crescent communities": Alachua, Newberry, High Springs, Fort White, Gilchrist County and Jonesville.

The High Springs Herald was sold to another family in the late ‘50s. That family ran the paper until Campus Communications, also the owner of the Alligator, purchased it in 1990.

Dupont bought it in 2009 and renamed it The North Florida Herald.

It had a print circulation of 3,300 and about 2,000 visitors to its website daily.

The paper was ranked the Best Community Newspaper six years in a row by the Florida Press Association up to 2010. This year, it took third, tied with The Coastal Star and behind The Islander and Navarre Press.

The paper was known to cover birthday parties and anniversaries with as much gusto as shootings and plane crashes.

"There's nobody here now to chronicle that," Dupont said.

Dupont started his journalism career in middle school. After earning a staff job at The Palm Beach Post, he interned at The New York Times and said he was offered a job, but he decided he wanted to go to college and get a degree.

After two years at UF, he was offered a job as the editor of The High Springs Herald. He took it.

In 1995, he left for a job at the Charlotte Sun Herald in Charlotte County, where he worked to pioneer the online newspaper industry by creating one of the nation's first newspaper websites. He was then hired by the St. Petersburg Times in 1998 to develop the paper's website, but by 2003 he was ready to go back to his roots.

Four months later, he returned as editor of the Herald. In 2009, he bought the paper, putting his house up as collateral.

For Dupont, his time at The Herald has been more than a job. It's been a community service.

Longtime reader Randy Highsmith, who has started a Save The North Florida Herald page on Facebook, said the newspaper has been a staple of the area.

"It pulled the community together and allowed us to have a larger voice," he said. "It just felt like it was always going to be there."

The end of The Herald is not only a loss for the communities it covered, said journalism professor Mike Foley, but also for UF students.

Since the '90s, it has been a haven for journalism interns to learn the ins and outs of the industry and to fine-tune their writing.

Dominick Tao, a 2008 UF graduate and a former intern with The North Florida Herald, credits Dupont for giving him the foundation to go on to internships at the St. Petersburg Times, The Miami Herald and The New York Times.

"I can honestly say it was the first newspaper that was willing to give a young reporter a chance to spread his wings," he said.

Rick Hirsch, managing editor of The Miami Herald and another former intern at the High Springs newspaper, said the paper's end is a product of a changing, uncertain time in the journalism industry.

"The news business is in a time of transition," he said. "In many places, the smaller daily or weekly papers are doing better."

Despite everything that's happened, Dupont said community journalism is still thriving.

"The future of journalism and of hyperlocal journalism is bright," he said. "We are the exception to the rule."

The first and last issues of The North Florida Herald represent 59 years of community coverage in Florida's "crescent communities," including High Springs, Fort White and Newberry.