Just before Christmas, the Rhino Times wrote about the long extensive death of local media in Guilford County and the fact that Triad City Beat looks very likely to cease to exist soon. It’s expected to join a long line of newspapers that have gone out of business in the last decade and a half. The publication, which longtime editor Brian Clarey is leaving at the end of the year, is attempting to raise $20,000 to continue operations, but it doesn’t sound hopeful for that decade-plus-old publication.

However, that’s not the only longtime area newspaper that announced the end of publication this week after a lengthy run of providing news in Guilford County.

Patti Stokes, the editor and publisher of the Northwest Observer, announced in the Thursday, Dec. 19 issue that the newspaper was shutting down.

“The more I say this out loud, the less it hurts my ears,” she wrote in the lead story of that final edition, “after 28 memorable years of publishing the Northwest Observer, this is our final issue.”

This comes right on the heels of Triad City Beat announcing its likely end of publication, as well as in the wake of years of the demise of other local newspapers.  It  also comes at a time when the once highly profitable News and Record is struggling mightily to survive. That paper has jettisoned many of its most appealing (and costly) features and started running large advertising blocks on its front page.

With the loss of the Northwest Observer, the residents of Oak Ridge, Stokesdale, Summerfield and the surrounding area are losing a solid and consistent source of information; however, they’re also losing a paper that presented a lot of controversial editorials in a part of Guilford County where the overriding theme of the century is basically how much residential and economic development is beneficial for that section of the county.

“It’s been a bittersweet decision for sure,” Stokes wrote in the top story in the final December 19 issue, “as it marks the end of my journey as owner, editor and publisher of a local newspaper – a role I felt totally unprepared for when I started almost three decades ago. I especially thank those of you who were with me from the beginning, when I was a very naïve, inexperienced writer, reporter and business owner with one thin layer of skin and no idea of where I was going with my little eight-page newsletter.”

“Not once since I stuck my neck out and embarked on this journey in November 1996 has there been a dull moment, whether spent covering local government meetings and community events to gathering stories of ‘ordinary but extraordinary’ individuals in our community, and so much in between,” she continued.

Stokes wrote that she treasured the connections she’s helped facilitate over the years between residents, businesses and local leaders, and she added that it had been “an honor” to have the job of keeping residents informed – as well as amused –about local politics and events.

Stokes stated it was those relationships that made it so hard for her to cease publication.

However, this will, she added, give her more time to spend with her husband of 40 years, her two children and five grandchildren – and it will allow her time to take more frequent walks on the A&Y Greenway and pursue other interests.

Stokes has been reporting news pertinent to that corner of the county for nearly three decades and she has been writing for over half a century.

The paper, which began in the mid-’90s, came into existence just a few years before the rise of the internet – and before social media sites and Google began gobbling up ad revenue from local and national newspapers.

Stokes now plans to continue some publishing in the future, including the annual northwest community directory and a new quarterly initiative that won’t be a newspaper – but will instead contain a small amount of local news, some feature articles about the history of Northwest Guilford County, local trivia and other features.

Many of the paper’s readers had a lot of praise for Stokes on social media sites after the announcement of the end of the Northwest Observer.

Barbara Yost Engel, to take just one example. Wrote, “Patti…Your paper connected us to this wonderful community when we moved here 22 years ago. We are really going to miss you and your staff and all the great reporting of our local news. It has brought the NW together! … Don’t you know retirees are busier than when they actually worked a full-time job.”

Don Wendelken, who runs a news site and publishes a newspaper in Summerfield, has often been at odds with Stokes over local political and economic development issues.  He posted on the Northwest Observer Facebook page that his news site and newspaper was still open for business and would continue covering events in the northeast.

Wendelken told the Rhino Times this week that he was surprised at the response he got from Stokes.

“Dear Don,” Stokes replied on Facebook.  “The days leading up to today have been emotional ones for me, my staff, my family and my closest friends, who have been with me through all the ups, downs and in betweens of running a local newspaper for almost 30 years. While I knew you and your cohorts would celebrate our departure, I honestly didn’t think you would stoop to this level of low – i.e., to come on OUR Facebook page on THIS day, when people are sharing kind words and well wishes about our service to the community, and have the audacity to promote your website. How incredibly tacky, rude, insensitive, and frankly, just plain slimy.”

Stokes added, “While I suspect many would be entertained if I were to engage with you right here in front of everyone and we went back and forth, and back and forth – that’s not going to happen. This is going to be a one-time and one-way conversation. So let me be clear: You can publish whatever you want on YOUR page, but not on mine – so go back home and play in your own yard.”

She also wrote that she had some final words of advice for Wendelken: “If you want people to read and respect your website, or your once-every-two-years-before-an-election publication that you…put out to promote your town council candidates, 1) learn to write 2) learn to write well 3) do your homework and be accurate 4) include opinions from all sides, not just those who you support and 5) be respectful, responsible, and use your voice for good, not to stir the pot.”

Stokes concluded that Northwest Observer readers were unlikely to become readers of Wendelken’s news enterprises because “they can distinguish between real journalism and self-satisfying opinion peddling.”

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