Why the story of Nome still needs a local newspaper

The roof caught fire on a gusty September morning in 1934. Nome businessman Ralph Lomen was among the crowd of people gathered on Front Street, feeling helpless as he watched the Golden Gate Hotel burn.  An ember from a nearby chimney sparked the blaze, and strong winds whipped up flames from one building to the next in the heart of downtown.
George Maynard was nearly trapped in the fire. The publisher and editor of the nearby Nome Daily Nugget scrambled to save whatever printing equipment he could—the roof of his newsroom buckling above him. His son Russ, also took risks, re-enterering the inferno to rescue parts of the Nugget’s presses.
By mid-day, the flames had charred a smoldering path ten blocks long and three blocks wide. The Nugget lay in rubble along with 64 other businesses including the Lomen Brothers’ famed photography studio. Ninety homes were also destroyed and 400 people were suddenly homeless.
Even as the newsroom smoldered, the Maynards went to work. Russ gathered quotes and documented the destruction. George, an Associated Press correspondent, rushed to cable first word of the fire to the outside world. The story made Page One of the next day’s New York Times. In one dispatch, George reassured readers the Nugget would publish another day, though the timeline remained unclear.
It took seven weeks before the presses rolled again. In the meantime, local news didn’t disappear.
Within days of the fire, the paper began printing a temporary publication known as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration Bulletin. Created in 1933, the FERA was among the earliest New Deal programs addressing widespread poverty during the Great Depression.
After the fire, its bulletins restored local news as essential infrastructure — a communication lifeline delivering daily updates about relief efforts, food deliveries, and reconstruction announcements. 
Months later, locals still praised the paper for filling this vital gap.
This is what the Nugget did for Nome.
Today, it is our duty not to take it for granted.
The Nome Nugget is conducting an audience survey now through March 21. And one of the final questions asks: What will you miss if the Nugget disappears? It’s a sobering question in a region already experiencing profound change across its land and waters. 
Meanwhile, the loss of small local papers has become routine. Last year alone, 136 newsrooms shuttered across the country.
Please take three minutes to complete the survey, a simple way to show that this community still values its local newspaper, and in the way that fire victims in 1934 did when it viewed the Nugget as essential to keeping the lights on. 
Because a newspaper survives only when the people it serves show up for it. If the Nugget is to continue printing the story of Nome for another century, it will do so because of you.

Jenni Monet is an Alaska-based journalist and frequent contributor to The Nome Nugget.