Hyper-local journalism cements its place on Madison’s east side during the 1980s

By Dave Link, Eastside News

As the celebration of 100 years of community journalism on Madison’s east side wraps up, it’s time to look at the “modern age” of Eastside News, where Atwood/Goodman community centers mostly coordinated the publishing of it.

The Atwood’s Alive newsletter published by the Atwood Community Center, with help from the neighborhood associations, became a full-fledged newspaper in 1980. In 1981, it was rechristened East Side News with formerly Atwood’s Alive in parenthesis below the new nameplate. While printed on newsprint and a broadsheet with plenty of ads, these early issues still seemed more newsletter than newspaper.

Today’s editions still continue to carry the same type of content. Like there’s still an older adult section. In 1982, East Side New’s senior section told of ACC’s monthly euchre and the Friendly Sightseers group that met on Mondays for lectures, slides shows, trips, plays and potlucks. These same activity listings can be found in current editions.

The youth notes section told of ACC’s youth program offerings. On Mondays, preteens (ages 7-13) could come to cooking class from 3:30-5:15 p.m. This is another activity still occurring at Goodman Community Center.

As the 1980s progressed, East Side News finally resembled a newspaper again. One of the front-page stories in April 1982 edition reports on layoffs at Oscar Mayer, Ray-O-Vac, Madison-Kipp and more. In 1984, the lead article is how Madison-Kipp will renovate the old Madison Metro bus barns at 166 S. Fair Oaks Ave. The bus barns, originally built for streetcars, were where the city stored buses before the current East Washington Avenue location.

The spring 1987 ESN informs readers that the neighborhood revitalization association is assisting in planning for uses of the recently abandoned Soo Line through the neighborhood. That corridor is where the Capital City Path runs past community gardens and GCC’s Brassworks.

The first splash of color shows up in the August 1994 edition. Before that, ESN was only black ink on whitish paper. Full color appears on some pages and photos by the end of the decade. Full color on all pages would finally be realized about 10 years ago, when improvements to printing made it cost effective.

Articles in the 1990s offered these tidbits: A computerized Atwood food pantry and ACC’s Thanksgiving Basket Drive provided 300 meals to the community (November/December 1995), and ACC has a homepage on the web — but not its own domain (February 1996).

Ads have always been important to ESN. After all, it is expensive to publish a newspaper. While their purpose is simple — to help pay the bills — viewed through time, ads also provide a glimpse of what the east side was like. Ads for haircuts, restaurants and home repair. Mostly locally owned establishments, though there’s always been professionally designed corporate-style ads.

One of the other constants in the modern age has been stories written by community members volunteering their time. Hyper-local community journalism requires the community to be participants. ESN has been fortunate to have so many people volunteer their time and skills since the early 1980s. Volunteer writers are still the hallmark of ESN.

It’s hard to condense 100 years into six issues. But the most constant of all the ESN constants is that the community cares. Marshall Browne’s ESN would not have lasted 40 years if nobody read it. If residents didn’t clamor for more from the newsletters in the 1970s, ESN would not have been revived in the 1980s. And, if the community was apathetic to ESN by the 1990s and beyond, this community newspaper would be defunct again.

Having a community newspaper for 100 years is something to celebrate — and support — and it’s something we all should take pride in. As the first issues proclaimed in 1924: Madison, the best of cities — The east side, the best of Madison.