Much of my 48-year career in the newspaper business was spent at the helm of the opinion pages of The Fresno Bee. Before and after my tenure, those pages didn’t just inform. They sparked conversation, challenged assumptions, and reflected the heartbeat of the San Joaquin Valley. The section became the voice of the region’s leading newspaper and, a gathering place where readers, writers, and community leaders could confront hard truths and imagine a better future together.

I write this not out of nostalgia for my time as editorial page editor, but out of concern for what is being lost as McClatchy Newspapers shuts down The Fresno Bee’s local opinion pages. The company has laid off the editors and shifted control to The Sacramento Bee’s opinion staff as part of a broader corporate restructuring — what McClatchy describes as a mission to be “the best in the world.” That may sound aspirational, but in practice it means Fresno’s editorial voice will now be spoken from 180 miles away.

The Sacramento team is a talented and dedicated group of journalists, but they are already stretched thin covering the broad range of opinion topics across the capital region. Expecting them to also provide consistent, thoughtful, and locally informed commentary on issues unique to the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley is unrealistic.

McClatchy Treats Fresno Like an Afterthought

Fresno’s voice will almost certainly be diluted. Its distinctive perspective lost amid a centralized editorial operation. Fresno is the fifth-largest city in the nation’s most populous state, with more than half a million residents at the heart of a valley of over four million people. It serves as the economic, cultural, and agricultural hub of the San Joaquin Valley, and is too vital a community to be treated as an afterthought.

I don’t say this as someone naïve about the challenges facing modern newsrooms. As executive editor of The Bee from 2012 to 2018, I had to make difficult staffing decisions myself. These were painful but necessary steps as the industry struggled to adapt to the economic realities of a business that lost much of its advertising revenue to Big Tech.

I know what it’s like to sit across from talented journalists and deliver the difficult news that their jobs have been eliminated. I understand the financial pressures that drive those decisions. Since retiring, I’ve worked with newsroom editors to navigate similarly tough choices, helping them remain financially independent while staying relevant and true to their mission. It is not easy.

The Hollowing Out of The Fresno Bee’s Core

But there’s a difference between making hard choices to survive and hollowing out the core of what makes a local newspaper indispensable. Opinion pages are more than a collection of editorials, op-eds and letters. They are a civic forum. . . a community square in print and online where ideas are debated, injustices are confronted, and progress begins.

Why do opinion-driven topics thrive on cable television and social media, while today’s news editors struggle to find an effective way to integrate them into mainstream journalism? That is a question they should be asking themselves, instead of defaulting to blowing up the opinion pages and claiming it as a commitment to local news.

For decades, The Bee’s opinion pages have given a voice to local leaders, farmers, educators, activists and everyday people who would otherwise struggle to be heard beyond the Valley. They have pressed for water reform, environmental protection, economic fairness, and accountability from local and state officials. They have been a catalyst for civic engagement, a space where readers could argue, agree, and I hope better understand one another.

When those pages are managed from afar, essential connections fray. The nuances of local politics, the history behind long-running community debates, and the personalities that shape an area’s identity cannot be fully understood from a faraway newsroom. The danger is not just that Fresno’s voice will fade. It’s that the people in this part of the Valley will lose a vital platform to speak for themselves.

Newspapers Aren’t Simply Businesses

It’s worth asking: What does it mean to be “the best in the world” if, in the process, a company stops being the best in the community it serves? Newspapers are not simply businesses. They are public institutions that help define the civic life of a region. Once local editorial voices disappear, rebuilding them becomes nearly impossible.

Fresno deserves more than a distant editorial page reflecting someone else’s priorities. It deserves an opinion section rooted in this community’s soil, shaped by editors and writers who live here, understand our challenges, and care about our future.

Without that, we lose not only a section of this important news site, but a part of our shared civic soul. That is a voice that for more than 100 years spoke for, and to, the Valley itself.

About the Author

Jim Boren is the executive director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State and an adjunct faculty member at the university. He teaches advanced reporting in the Media, Communications and Journalism Department. He retired in 2018 as Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of The Fresno Bee.

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GV Wire encourages vigorous debate from people and organizations on local, state, and national issues. Submit your op-ed or letter to bmcewen@gvwire.com for consideration.