Don't Think Twice, It's Alright.

In other Lancaster news, today is the first day in more than a century that my town will only produce one newspaper.

Instead of turning all "media reform" and idealistic on you, I'd like to point out that this is probably for the best. Sure, walking to Turkey Hill and choosing between the Intelligencer Journal, New Era and Lancaster Times (the fictional paper as seen in Weird Al's "Amish Paradise" music video), plus the sublime Philadelphia Inquirer and Harrisburg Patriot-News, would be fantastic. So would a puppy named "Scooter."

But in the real world, newspapers are shutting down across the country and my dad is allergic to puppies.

And so, here we are. Today marks the end of the Lancaster's New Era, an afternoon newspaper formed in 1877 to serve the über-Republican constituency of Lancaster County. It will be combined into the morning's Intelligencer Journal and that package will be delivered in the morning. (Full disclosure, just to be safe: I wrote for the "teen section" of the Intel for years and was a sports correspondent for the paper as well.)

Granted, its folding isn't surprising news. The announcement of this consolidation was made months ago, and both papers are owned by Lancaster Newspapers. Perhaps as a trial run, the Saturday edition had already been a joint publication between the two for a while now. Although both operate out of the same building, they maintained separate editorial departments. Odd as it was, it worked.

In the years I read it, the New Era served as exactly what residents expected a conservative newspaper to be. There were syndicated columns from the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin rotated in and out. Editorially, it was pretty ridiculous, but the stories were never overtly conservative. It suffered more so from the lack of reporters that limit the content of most local papers. In that sense, there's some good here.

As newspapers across the country continue to fold, it would be selfish to expect Lancaster to maintain two dailies. Much more important cities, like Boston, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta and Chicago, are currently in drawn-out struggles to keep the lights on at their major newspapers, why should Lancaster avoid this awful fate?

Now, the two papers will be able to consolidate their resources and various other corporate jargon. The extra reporters working together will succeed especially well in this area; Lancaster County is full of small communities like Blue Ball, Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand that (obviously) have no other sources of local news. The fact that these papers are keeping separate opinion pages and editorial departments is what puts me at ease.

Yes, I did buy the last issue. Not so much as a keepsake, because the paper never meant much to me beyond its role as "another newspaper" in the county, but as an end of an era. (I am so sorry.) There was something really nice about saying my town does have two newspapers. And although both publications ran the obligatory pieces about how this is a big change, but not a goodbye, there were plenty of quotes included about how this is a shame. If they asked me, I simply would have said I won't miss the New Era, but I hope someone can step up and fill that role of "another paper."

Long live the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era. Wow, actually that looks really dumb. Let's just keep calling it the Intel.

-30-
New Era closes shop.