21-year-old college student bypasses bigger opportunities to take reins at small hometown Mondovi newspaper

MONDOVI - Some college kids come home for summer and wait tables, paint houses or grab internships.

Nash Weiss is serving as interim editor of his local weekly newspaper, the Mondovi Herald-News.

He's 21 years old, an incoming senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he's studying journalism.

Weiss probably could have had his pick of internships after recently completing one with NBC-TV News in Washington, D.C.

But with longtime editor Beth Kraft going on maternity leave for the summer, the Mondovi Herald-News needed someone to fill in.

So, Weiss returned to this rural corner of Wisconsin, around 23 miles south of Eau Claire.

He'll be on the job until the middle of August.

"You feel like you need to serve your local community," Weiss said. "I grew up here, I care about the community, I always will. This is the way I could give back."

It's no secret that journalism is going through profound change, an industry in search of a sustainable business model as news moves from print to digital.

Yet in small towns and rural communities across Wisconsin, printed newspapers remain important. There are 189 non-daily paid circulation newspapers in the state, according to Wisconsin Newspaper Association executive director Beth Bennett.

"We're trying to scream our story of just how vital these weekly newspapers are to the continued growth and vitality of local communities," Bennett said. "We provide reporting on local governments and provide local reporting via public notices, the information citizens need to stay engaged with their governments."

"People still like to see their name in the paper, like to see their kids' sports stories reported in the newspaper," Bennett said.

On its front page, the Mondovi Herald-News boasts of "Serving Buffalo County for 142 Years." It's published weekly with a circulation of 3,000 and covers three communities.

When the paper hits the newsstand Wednesday, there are usually some folks lined up at the front door of the newspaper office, which sits next to the Beauty Nook and across the street from the White Pig tavern.

The newspaper is part of the family-owned GMD Media Inc., which operates weeklies and shoppers in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Mondovi Herald-News is a three-person operation. Patrick Milliren handles ad sales. Bobbi Tiegs, who has been at the paper going on 50 years, is a graphic designer, typesetter and copy reader.

With a notebook and camera, and boundless curiosity, Weiss provides readers with a diary of rural life, from storms that topple trees to local fairs to the contests for Miss Mondovi and Miss Gilmanton.

"Because we are a small paper, a lot of what we cover are events," he said.

Business openings are big news around here. He recently wrote about Bliss Wellness, which "serves up aloe, shakes and teas."

When Mondovi Police Chief Colin Severson helped some kids change their flat tire, that was a big local story, too, after a mother of one of the teens posted about it on Facebook.

"This went viral on Facebook locally, and by viral I mean around 170 views," Weiss said.

But he's also written some fascinating human interest stories, including one on a local couple reunited with the son they gave up for adoption 45 years ago. Weiss admired the couple's willingness to come forward, especially in such small a community.

"It's sometimes an ethical dilemma being with a small-town newspaper," he said.

Weiss' first cousin is Mondovi's mayor. He's also related to the previous mayor.

"You know everybody," he said. "You're related to everybody."

This year, the Buffalo County Dairy Breakfast was held on the farm Weiss' family owns in Alma, about 15 minutes from the newspaper office. He covered the event.

Weiss has a deep connection to the newspaper. His birth announcement appeared in the paper. Later, he was written up after being nominated for an Emerging Leader Excellence award.

In high school, he did some student writing for the paper, covering cross country.

He works long hours — on more than a few nights he has seen people leave the White Pig after last call. He also manages to put in two days a week as an intern for WEAU-TV News in Eau Claire.

"I could not do this job without Bobbi," he said.

Tiegs is an institution, working at the paper for a half century under three owners and four editors. She jokes: "I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none." She does everything from laying out pages to running the old printing press for commercial jobs. The paper itself is printed elsewhere.

Tiegs has known Weiss his whole life and is proud he returned home.

She knows that Weiss will take his journalism career elsewhere. But for one summer, he gave his all to tell the local news.

As they sat and talked one day, Tiegs turned to Weiss and told him: "Nash, you have really come in and stepped up."