Rural newspapers are fighting to survive. So what happens when major news hits?

Nov 4, 2024
A small town Wyoming editor has been running the local 120-year-old weekly newspaper by herself.
Pinedale Roundup editor Cali O'Hare felt threatened after her coverage of a tortured wolf rubbed some locals the wrong way.
Melodie Edwards

Wyoming summer camp tackles "brain drain" with nature

Oct 4, 2024
A kids camp in the Rockies lives out Wyoming’s vision for teaching the next generation of outdoor leaders and conservationists.
Campers tromp around by the beaver pond they are helping restore. Outdoor conservation is a key point for the camp, as its founders hope these kids will learn how to take care of Wyoming’s vast public lands.
Caitlin Tan/Wyoming Public Radio

Libraries are essential for internet access, even as national broadband projects ramp up

Aug 23, 2024
The federal government wants to bring fiber connections to every home. In the meantime, some areas will still rely on the library.
Debra Lawson, director of the Spencer County Public Library, says she doesn't know what some patrons would do without the library's internet access. "The way they use our computers, they're participating in society," she says.
Andie Corban/Marketplace

When daycares close in rural areas, sometimes an entire town is left without options

Aug 22, 2024
In Wyoming alone, 285 daycares have shuttered in the past 15 years, and there were only about 850 to begin with. One town has a fresh idea to help bring a child care option back to their community.
In Wyoming, 285 daycares have shuttered in the past 15 years, and there were only about 850 to begin with. 
Nimito/Getty Images

A former floral delivery driver looks in the rearview mirror

Jul 19, 2024
Meghan Irby mapped her routes the old-fashioned way before navigation software was a thing. Her boss "used chickens as a landmark."
Meghan Irby circa 2004, when she worked as a floral delivery driver in rural West Virginia. "I was sweaty most of the time, both from the heat and the stress,” she recalls.
Courtesy Irby

In Maine, hopes turn to law students amid dearth of rural attorneys

Mar 28, 2022
Lawmakers consider a proposal that might convince some law students to work and live in rural communities.
Legislators have proposed allowing law students to work at a legal aid clinic in Fort Kent to alleviate the shortage of lawyers in the area.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Pandemic pushes big-city dreamers out of Shanghai

Mar 30, 2021
Workers from rural China came to Shanghai in search of better lives, a challenge even in good times. Then the COVID-19 lockdown hit.
Parents boast about their unmarried children's achievements on handwritten notes taped to umbrellas at Shanghai's People's Park. The ads bring China's urban-rural divide into sharp focus.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Rural bank branches more scarce than ever

Dec 3, 2019
The Federal Reserve found that over 40% of rural counties lost bank branches in the five years to 2017.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The lucky migrant workers who get to retire in Beijing

Oct 4, 2019
While many people move away from the countryside for work, few of them are able to officially register in the cities.
A man sells dream catchers in Beijing. Few migrant workers from the countryside can stay in the city long term.
Photo courtesy of Shanghai 808 Studio

T-Mobile-Sprint merger depends on promise to bring 5G to rural America

May 21, 2019
But it will require big spending on new tech in areas with small customer bases.
Picture shows a 5G antenna at Deutsche Telekom stand on the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 26, 2018 in Barcelona.
PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images