When a large media company bought the local newspaper in Sullivan County, Indiana, reporter Angela Allen lost her job. For a rural community in the southwest corner of the state, that meant losing something bigger than a byline — it meant losing the person who showed up to the meetings, asked the questions, and told residents what was happening in their own backyard.

But the community wasn’t ready to let local journalism disappear. By public demand, Angela was brought back on a part-time basis to continue her reporting. It was a rare and encouraging thing: readers standing up and insisting that their local news matters.

The comeback, however, came with hard realities. Part-time reporting doesn’t pay a full-time living. Angela had taken another full-time job after losing her reporter position — and she says she then lost that job as well, due to political pressure on her employer. The result has been real financial hardship for someone who simply wanted to keep informing her neighbors.

This week’s episode of Fridays With Larry tells Angela’s story in full: how corporate ownership is reshaping small-town newspapers, why her readers fought to bring her back, and what it costs one person to keep the truth flowing in a community that depends on it.

Angela is still reporting for the paper part-time, but she can’t live on that income alone. If you’d like to support her work and help her through this period of hardship, you can contribute to her GoFundMe page: Support Angela Allen — Stand Up for Truth

Fridays with Larry is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube at this link, or listen to the audio version using this link.  Or, use the links below: