What do you do when your hometown newspaper dies?

That's the question some Clovis residents are asking, but it may soon be on the lips in towns throughout the Valley as layoffs, buyouts and closures continue to bedevil traditional media.

Do city officials partner with Clovis Unified to create an insert in the school district's newspaper? Does the chamber or a foundation fork over money for an insert in the Fresno Bee? Or, acknowledging the average age in Clovis is about 32 and the circulation of the defunct Clovis Independent was minimal, do you switch totally to online aggregating of newsy items?

I was among a group of about a dozen volunteers who met Sept. 4 at Clovis City Hall with Bee publisher C. Ray Steele and Valerie Bender, who oversees community publications. City Council Member Lynne Ashbeck called the brainstorming session: "More than 'Clovis Legals': Communicating in/about/around Clovis." (Participants also included longtime Clovis civic leader Peggy Bos, Kelly Avants from Clovis Unified, Clovis City Manager Kathy Millison, chamber folks and others.)

In its heyday, the Independent published scads of local photos, feature stories, detailed lists of who got busted for DUIs, profiles of local senior citizens, who got promoted/honored at hospitals and booster clubs and news of politics, education and sports. It had charm, dwindling numbers of ads and was a gateway to better jobs for some reporters.

The Fresno Bee shut the Independent newspaper earlier this year. (In 2006, the stock price of the parent corporation -- McClatchy Co. -- was about $51 a share; it's currently hovering around $3.) 

Do you miss the Independent? Would you care if the Selma Enterprise, Reedley Exponent or other local papers went belly up? Should some of their contents -- like news of local school board candidates, honors awarded, scam warnings, hotel openings -- be accumulated by "citizen journalists" and posted on line?

Let me know your thoughts and I'll relay them (and maybe post them in a future blog).

(Full disclosure: I worked for the Fresno Bee for nearly 20 years as a reporter and editor before joining Community Medical Centers, and also regularly wrote an opinion column for the Clovis Independent. Ray Steele was one of my first bosses at the Bee back when his hair was darker and you could chain-smoke in the newsroom.)