Assistant Editor Jerry Lindsey wrote this essay. The Editor took the photograph.
History will record the many events of the 2020 year, due to COVID-19 pandemic and the way everyone’s lives were altered. The legends will read of many illnesses and deaths encountered by every race, gender, and age, and the havoc created by a divided Nation. The economy of the Nation became a challenge to forecast, due to leadership inadequacies at all levels of Government. But hidden among the mass of uncertainties that everyone faced, the City of Morrison, IL, lost–or is in the process of losing–a newspaper that has carried the news and happenings within Morrison since 1857.
For 164 years Main Street has housed a publication that echoed the events of the neighbors, businesses, and industries that called Morrison home. As of February 1, 2021, Main Street no longer is the home of the Whiteside News Sentinel. Shaw Media purchased the weekly publications from owner Tony Komlanc in early 2019 and gradually narrowed the employment force, until the final days when only two employees remained. On February 1, Komlanc sold the building housing the Whiteside News Sentinel to a local business. The one remaining employee moved her office to her home. Shaw moved all equipment to their publishing facilities in Dixon, IL.
Previous actions of Shaw management focused on areas without an understanding of, or appreciation for, what hometown newspapers really mean to readers. Management has not maintained the confidence of Whiteside News Sentinel readers by failing to share local interests within the Morrison community.
The Whiteside News Sentinel published community highlights; recorded public actions for history; gave local readers a weekly flavor of Morrison area folks. Readers looked forward to
- school activities of their loved ones
- action at one of the most successful County Fairs of Illinois, including a visit from the President of the United States
- stats of local athletic events and the crowning of three State Champions.
Due to local reporting, weekly issues announced marriages, deaths, engagements, church schedules, and many smaller details that kept the community united. The front pages carried action from the Morrison Sports Complex. Coverage of Chamber of Commerce events–the annual Halloween Costume Parades and Lighted Christmas Parades to kick off the holiday season–brought the downtown alive. In September, unique multi-generational happenings on the Harvest Hammer Run and Paint The Town weekend always filled the pages of the Sentinel. Colorful painted streets remained as a tribute to the comprehensive effort that always made community members proud to call Morrison home.
Similar community highlights, of the years prior to the 21st century events above, also made the Sentinel a weekly pleasure to read. Its pages embodied the togetherness of family happenings within the area and into the rural areas of Whiteside County.
This is not an announcement of the disappearance of the Whiteside New Sentinel. It is a recognition that perhaps a change is on the horizon. This change could easily lead to the demise of a publication that always has been counted on for up-to-date local, Morrison-driven news each week.
It was my pleasure to fill the chair of Whiteside News Sentinel‘s Editor for over 11 years. I worked to bring the news of Morrison in a form that educated, updated, entertained, and informed each reader. Shaw Media eliminated the position of Editor in 2020.
I have accepted the position of Assistant Editor for thecity1.com. I hope to make this Morrison social media newspaper your reference for Morrison community news in the future.