What’s it like to publish a newspaper in rural Kansas these days?

Following the police raid of the Marion County Record, the editors of two small-town Kansas newspapers, the Iola Register and the Marysville Advocate, joined Up To Date to discuss what it takes to keep local publications going in a culture increasingly hostile toward the media.
Papers in rural Kansas, and in small towns across the country, work tirelessly and with limited resources to report the facts to their communities on a daily basis.

With the unprecedented police raid of the Marion County Record in Marion, Kansas, last week, small-town newspapers, and the role they play in society, have found their way into national discourse.

Susan Lynn, editor and publisher of the Iola Register, told KCUR's Up To Date that if the Register was raided like the Record, residents would likely question the motives of the paper or police.

“We really depend on our relationship with law enforcement officers and so if that looks like it's threatened, then I think it is very disturbing for a community,” she says.