Lexington's Family-Owned Newspaper Still Believes in the Power of Print
By Claire DiChiaro
Amid the small businesses and restaurants that crowd W. Nelson St., one of the main thoroughfares in downtown Lexington, Va., stands a small brick building: home of the Lexington News-Gazette.
The News-Gazette is the sole local weekly newspaper for both the city of Lexington and surrounding Rockbridge County. It covers a population of around 22,000, according to the latest U.S. Census.
The paper boasts an ownership model that is becoming increasingly rarer in today’s news landscape. For four generations, it has remained locally-owned by the Paxton family. Matthew Paxton, the current publisher of the News-Gazette, has been at the paper for 45 years.
Paxton says he feels a sense of responsibility for the paper’s future: “I think it’s important for this paper to continue and I’m actively looking at how it continues after me.”
The exterior of Lexington News-Gazette building on a sunny December morning, nestled between a movie theatre and a clothing boutique in downtown Lexington (Claire DiChiaro).
Print versus digital-only subscribers to the Lexington News-Gazette since 2018. All data provided by USPS Circulation Reports and by Matt Paxton. Visualization constructed by Claire DiChiaro
In August 2025, Paxton hired a Digital Media Specialist, Beverly Thorman, to expand their digital offerings and to streamline their website. Thorman is also working to create more content for Facebook and Instagram, with the goal of raising awareness of the paper throughout Rockbridge County and beyond. “I want people to know that we're here,” she said.
Her latest initiative is creating a free weekly email newsletter, which is currently in its fourth week of operation. She said that she wanted to mitigate the cost barrier for potential subscribers while keeping the revenue stream intact.
Contrary to the national trend, Thorman says that the News-Gazette still sells more print ads than digital ads. She attributes this to the readership demographic of the paper, who are older individuals and homeowners who look forward to receiving the physical paper in their mailboxes.
Finch says he enjoys paging through the ads in the print edition: "It has a very practical aspect."
Despite her role as a Digital Media Specialist, Thorman prefers print as well: “Having the physical copy just takes you back to almost a simpler time.” She says she hopes the News-Gazette can continue its print editions along with its digital offerings, but recognizes an uphill battle for print to survive nationwide:
“There's definitely going to be a huge struggle… it'll have to be a grassroots kind of deal where people need to feel like it's necessary. They need to feel like it's worth saving.”
Beverly Thorman further explains her love of print and why she believes it is still vital. Video captured by Claire DiChiaro
Kevin Finch, a Washington & Lee University professor of Journalism and a News-Gazette subscriber, says that when digital journalism began in the 1990s, newspapers did not see the value in charging much for digital ads and subscriptions: “The problem again is this mindset that we in the news media created a couple decades ago,” he said. “It's a hard sell because people are just used to getting stuff for free on the web.”
One option for small newspapers facing a revenue slump is to sell to a larger media conglomerate. But Paxton says this often leads to the newspaper losing touch with the community. He calls these types of “ghost papers,” as they often have no local office or physical address.
Finch has subscribed to the News-Gazette for nearly 13 years. He says the paper’s local location is a strength when covering Lexington and Rockbridge County. Stories about high school sports teams and unique town events “bring people together.”
In the wake of news deserts, Paxton says the paper has become more creative with how they make money. Along with a weekly print edition, the News-Gazette creates magazine-style guidebooks for clients such as James Madison University and the Augusta County Chamber of Commerce. These guidebooks create more opportunities for the News-Gazette to sell print advertisements.
The Medill State of News Report found that over the past five years, more than 300 local news startups have launched, with 80% of them being digital-only. This creates questions of whether digital-only is the way forward.
The News-Gazette has published a digital edition since 1997, although it has a smaller readership than print. The News-Gazette has 2,207 print subscribers and 300 digital-only subscribers per the most recent United States Postal Service circulation report. But the reach of the digital edition extends farther. Paxton said that the site averages 25 - 28,000 unique visitors a month.
Nationwide, independently-owned papers are shutting down in droves, citing economic hardships. According to the Medill State of News Report, 2025 was a record year for closures, with at least 136 local papers folding. These closures create news deserts – geographic areas that have little to no local news coverage. 50 million Americans are currently living in some form of news desert.
Without local news coverage, communities suffer. Local news serves important functions, such as holding local officials accountable, keeping people informed, and boosting civic engagement.
Newspapers have historically received most of their revenue from running print advertisements, but the rise of digital journalism created cheaper advertising rates, resulting in widespread revenue losses.
Paxton envisions the print edition of the News-Gazette continuing in the future: “Print is not dead. It's just kind of weak, and it is declining, but it's not dead.” He plans to continue maintaining a diverse revenue stream through print, digital, and magazine-style advertisements. He is also exploring philanthropy. Although the News-Gazette is a for-profit company, Paxton says they are eligible for grants. Thorman says that she was hired through a grant the News-Gazette received for small media outlets.
Paxton says that, no matter the way forward, he places more emphasis on the message than on the medium:
“Whether we do it in print, whether we do it digitally, I mean, we could skywrite, you know, it's just one of the things that I think most that old print publishers like me have had to get over is that it's not so much the physical medium – the information is what's important.”
Paxton says that the odds are still in the News-Gazette’s favor. He says that newspapers that are locally-owned often succeed over the “ghost papers” who decide to sell:
“We have skin in the game. Somebody that's 500 miles away and just a pusher, counting beans… it's nothing to them to cut a budget and shut a paper or whatever. But when you're right here, it's real life.”
Outside the News Gazette's building a newspaper vending machine offers the latest print edition to anyone passing by (Claire DiChiaro).
Note: I wrote the story below for my feature writing assignment for JOUR 201: News Writing in the fall of 2023. It was published in InGeneral, a campus human-interest magazine, in their spring 2024 issue.
Bill and Jessica Harden, the husband-and-wife team that owns Lexington’s Legendary Eats, still call each other at the end of each day to catch up – even after spending up to 15 hours working side by side.
“She’s my rock. To get to work with that person, who you trust completely – it’s amazing,” Bill Harden, 41, said.
The Hardens say they love working with each other so much that they are opening another restaurant in town. The restaurant, called Hardens, will open in the old University Cleaners building across the street from Washington and Lee University on North Jefferson Street. The Hardens gutted the building and rebuilt it from the ground up.
Jessica Harden, 34, said she and her husband settled in Lexington in 2014 after living in New York. But she said they were homesick, not so much for New York as they were for its food: “The first thing we would do was to go to the bagel shop and get, like, a bacon, egg and cheese and then bring a dozen back here,” Jessica Harden said.
The Hardens dash around Legendary Eats, filling sandwich orders in what looks like a well-rehearsed dance. At one point, Jessica and Bill exchange a slab of bread with a bottle of mustard from one’s outstretched hand to the other without even looking.
In the shop’s rare slow moments, they chat about the new show they’re watching (“Fatal Attraction” on Paramount +) and watch sports clips on one of their phones.
During a longer lull, Jessica Harden stepped out to check on the Hardens building around the corner. When she returned, she had news – the floors are done.
The Hardens say they have figured out how to operate two restaurants at the same time.
Most days, they say they will manage Legendary Eats from 8:00 a.m. until it closes at 3:00 p.m. Then they will be at Hardens when it opens for dinner until it closes at 11:00 p.m.
Bill and Jessica Harden met through mutual friends while getting ready to go to a concert in New York. Jessica had a boyfriend and Bill had a date for the night. But Bill got along so well with Jessica that he canceled his date. Two weeks later, Jessica and her boyfriend broke up. Bill waited for two days before asking her out.
The couple stayed in New York for the first few years of their relationship. But Bill Harden said he wasn’t happy with his job in finance.
Several of Bill Harden’s family members attended Washington and Lee. “I’ve been coming down here on vacations since I was five years old,” he said.
“I don’t think Jess ever intended to leave New York,” he continued. “But she just decided to pack up and take a risk and come with me when I decided to leave. I didn’t even ask her. I was just like, ‘I have to leave’ and she was like, ‘Yeah.’”
The couple planned to only stay in Lexington for a few months and then move to a larger southern city, like Miami or Charleston, S.C.
But no matter where they visited, the Hardens liked Lexington better. “We kept saying, ‘Let’s just stay one more year,’” Bill Harden said.
Hardens will also have a New York flavor. “We want to bring in a nice New York cocktail bar vibe, like dark colors and leather,” Jessica Harden said.
But they said they also want it to be a casual place to gather.
Bill Harden’s favorite detail in the restaurant is the large round table in the middle of the bar. He said he had never seen a bar designed like that before, but it was what he envisioned.
“You could go sit there by yourself and end up with a friend to your left and a friend to your right who you didn’t know when you first sat down,” he said.
With 14 seats, he says the bar will be the largest in town.
Bill Harden was a bartender at The Georges, a local hotel, for eight years. He said he is planning to bartend at the new place and to revive some of his most popular cocktails.
Hardens’ menu will include bar favorites such as burgers and salads, and the Hardens are also experimenting with some Asian and Southwestern dishes. There will be a late night menu offered from 9:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Hardens will be the first new restaurant in downtown Lexington since Southern Inn Restaurant, a popular Main Street eatery, closed last July after more than 80 years in business. But Bill and Jessica Harden said they don’t feel pressure to live up to its legacy.
“There’s no replacing the Southern Inn,” Jessica Harden said. “But when people think of Lexington, we hope they think of us, too.”
Bill Harden said he doesn’t know if it’s the right time to launch another business. “It might be the worst time to open a restaurant,” he said. “There is no right time, you just have to do it.”
The Covid-19 pandemic forced them to push back the opening day of Legendary Eats from April to August in 2020.
“I opened here and didn’t realize there was one little form I missed and I couldn’t run payroll for the first two weeks,” Jessica Harden said.
“It was harder than I ever imagined,” Bill Harden said. “Everything winds up being more expensive than you think. You have to redo it with a new contractor. It’s so much.”
But he said he believes the challenges only strengthen their marriage.
“I know that she will always have my back, because she’s proven it over and over again,” he said.
At the end of their work days, Bill Harden said he and his wife still call each other while driving home from work. “We take separate cars,” he clarified with a laugh.