Rising Sun Herald Ceases Publication

The Rising Sun Herald kept Cecil County readers informed for over 30-years.  However, the Dec. 18, 2018 issue was the last one.  

The news of the closure of this fine, community weekly, which knew how to cover its beat, Cecil County and Rising Sun, saddened us.  Every week those densely packed pages full of local news,  sports, social happenings, photographs, and advertising were eagerly anticipated by readers across the county.  A small, productive staff, headed by Editor Lisa Tome, shared the things that were important to residents.  Stale news from the wire services or syndicated columnist, the stuff that is old news by the time it comes off the printing press, never managed to slip into print to fill up those pages.  No, that space was for Cecil County, and Lisa filled with interesting local, relevant matter. 

Regardless, the business models for distributing news and for advertising has changed in the 21^st-century, complex, disruptive forces such as the Internet, new advertising outlets, and the consolidation of local businesses altering the media environment.

It is a significant trend across the nation as publications are shuttered.  When a local publication vanishes, the community loses, as we all rely on our hometown publications to keep us informed about things. There will be municipal meetings, school activities, sports events, and social happenings that go uncovered now. 

It is a significant, accelerating trend across the nation as publications shut down.  For many years, the Herald also produced an eastern county edition, the Times of Elkton and North East.  For that matter, Cecil County once had nine newspapers hit the streets each week.  Four of those broadsheets were in Elkton, and all the major towns had one around the top of the twentieth century.  Of course, that was long before broadcast media changed things in the 20^th century, and slowly those small town weeklies were absorbed by larger publications.  Finally, by the 1960s the county was down to two strong, lively weeklies, the Cecil Whig and the Cecil Democrat.  Now that the Herald has stopped that leaves the county with one publication, the Cecil Whig.    

Here is a link to Editor Lisa Tome farewell editorial.