The First Capitol News goes postal!
Those from St. Charles might remember the Banner News. It was a local paper covering local issues. When it left, ad sheets became our source for local news. That which has happened to the newspaper industry has happened to many different areas of American business — consolidation.
There are counter movements to such consolidation in many areas of business and retail, from independent book publishers and music recording studios to things as simple as independent coffee joints and bakeries. It is tough to compete against the big dogs, but many try and it was in this spirit that a few years ago the First Capitol News was founded.
It’s hard to believe that the audacious duo of Schaltenbrand and Brockmeyer has been able to create a newspaper that has scooped time and again the competition papers in town even though they have far more resources at their disposal, including a brigade of staff. It’s hard to believe that so many people leap from their vehicles at a red light just to snatch up a copy of the FCN from a newspaper box, and to hear people regularly say, “If I subscribe, I have to wait a day or two longer for my First Capitol News to arrive!” It is with absolute excitement and anticipation that the FCN readers look to their lawns to see whether the big-little paper has arrived in its usual red dress (on occasion she has worn blue and even see-through a time or two)! Readers suffer too when there is a printing holiday and look forward with double anticipation to the following edition!
This paper really has been built from the ground up and the reason its readership is so strong is due to the paper’s willingness to look into all of those mundane things that reporters used to look at: check registers, minutes of meetings, contracts, licenses and the like from whence dubious things come to light. Sometimes these things can be called corruption, sometimes they are improprieties. Abuse that arises from money and purchased influence has at least one outlet to the public. Maybe you don’t agree with all the stories or headlines printed, (most people don’t agree with any news source all the time) but most of the stories read in the pages of the FCN are the stuff that news papers are made of! Forget the dangling participles and any other grammar flaws you might see here, the essence presented is of interest to us all because the stories matter! Their efforts are fighting consolidation of the most important thing in a democracy — Information!
A couple of independent pens have become the eyes and ears of Saint Charles, Missouri, and their big-little paper is now coming to a mailbox near you!
