This week, S&B Staff Writer Nora Kohnhorst `25 asked local Grinnell community members their thoughts on The S&B and how they would feel if there were no longer to be a print edition.
The loss of the paper edition would be one more thing that you have to look up on the Internet, and that would involve competing with other stuff that’s on the Internet. And so also I get the paper, The Scarlet & Black, and I’ll pick it up and then I’ll take it to Saints Rest and then I’ll read it casually while I’m eating lunch. Which I would not be able to do if it was online.
— William Crosby, 66
Saints Rest has just always had a really wonderful opportunity to be a place that those two worlds meet. Whether it’s through students or whether it’s through the papers and the other printed media. … People like me don’t necessarily like to read their news online, and I’m sure the answer is, well, they can read it online . . . It’s not at your fingertips, I guess is the best way for me to put it. I mean, theoretically, it is at your fingertips. But my elderly coffee group that comes in and meets in the morning, or those people from out of town that aren’t carrying their computers with them, maybe it’s just their phone. There’s something to be said for the printed word in my personal opinion.
— Sam Cox, owner of Saints Rest
During a time when the college is looking for ways to strengthen ties in the community, your coverage of community events and topics has been great to see and appreciated by many. There is a large population in town who will not find your stories online for a variety of reasons. I think the print edition and having them available in downtown locations is a really valuable tool.
— Monique McLay Shore `90, Drake Community Library technology coordinator
A lot of the town of Grinnell are older, there’s a lot of retirement communities here, and so there’s varying levels of comfort with technology that I think is really important to consider. At a minimum, if you go to online only, the person needs to have some kind of device to access it and they also need stable internet connection and then also some skills to be able to go to the website and find the article. Each of those things is adding another barrier of access.
— Veronica Ruse `19, Drake Community Library assistant
