CAMBRIDGE, Md. - Wednesday marked the end of an era for the Dorchester Banner, the community newspaper that has served Dorchester County since 1897. The now-once weekly paper printed its final edition.
The Banner became a giant in the Dorchester County community, comparable to Craig's Drug Store, Simmons Center Market or Newcomb & Collins Funeral Home in local affinity and name recognition. But the nature of a changing print media landscape has led to the paper ceasing publication.
"Back when I was in high school we always waited until after the games to see who's picture made it in the sports page," said Bill Christopher, a Dorchester County native and current Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce President.
"Small town newspapers, really it's a tough market. People don't want to advertise in it, you want to advertise where you're going to be seen and print media is not necessarily where it's at these days," Christopher said.
The Banner's editor Andy West says this decision was a challenging one. "We have the reality of, is the community, it's readers and advertisers able to support what we need to do. And unfortunately, we reached that point with Dorchester that it unfortunately wasn't working."
Online newspaper archives demonstrate the quaint nature of the local news coverage in the Banner's early days. From 1908, a blurb read "Miss Leila Conway of Hurlock went to Baltimore on the boat Thursday night."
"It evolved into community newspapers as we know them, which covered everything from someone's birth to their death, economic changes, school news and all these things," West said.
West says none of the paper's three staff members will lose their jobs. He says two are retiring, and a third will join the Banner's sister publication in Salisbury.
The Dorchester Banner is part of a Delmarvawide paper group. West says Dorchester County will still receive coverage from time-to-time in the group's other papers.