Walter B. Potter Jr. spent the first 10 weekends of his community newspaper publishing career researching new technology: personal computers and how they could be used in newspaper production.
Small-town newspapers, almost by definition, have limited resources. “The publisher becomes the employee of last resort, and I had to become the research department for the Independent-Messenger” of Emporia, Virginia, said Potter, MA ’81, at a ceremony announcing his gift to the Nov. 19 in the Reynolds Alumni Center. It was a quarter century ago, but “it became increasingly clear to me that what small-town papers need … is someone to provide the research department for them.”
It’s a realization that led Potter, part of a third-generation community newspaper family, to create the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism in 2010. He previously donated $334,000 to the fund and has now pledged $1 million of his estate to enhance it.
The fund supports teaching and research on journalism that serves small communities, an annual Walter B. Potter Sr. Conference in Innovation and Transformation in Community Journalism at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (this year’s conference starts Nov. 20), and satellite conferences across the country.
“We want the Potter conferences and the other things the fund supports to be the go-to destination for community publishers … when they have questions like ‘What technology do I buy? How do I use it?’ ” Potter said during gift announcement.
Reviewed 2014-11-20