U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran mourns loss of his hometown newspaper in western Kansas

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, offered a tribute in the U.S. Senate to his hometown newspaper, the Plainville Times, after it folded into a new entity, the Stockton Sentinel-Times. (Photo by Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, an occupational resident of Washington, D.C., for three decades, says he looked forward to reading weekly editions of the Plainville Times for the latest news from his hometown.

“Growing up in this small town in western Kansas, I saw firsthand how the newspaper supported the community and brought neighbors, friends and even strangers together,” Moran said.

In a speech on the U.S. Senate floor, the Republican explained that the community of Plainville, a city of 1,700 people in Rooks County, could no longer financially sustain the Times. In the end, owners of the Stockton Sentinel offered a lifeline. Going forward, news from Stockton and Plainville will be captured in pages of the newly christened Stockton Sentinel-Times.

“Local journalism is important to the future of rural America,” Moran said. “Community journalism pulls us together. National journalism has the habit of tearing us apart.”

The senator said he was grateful to dedicated editors, reporters and staff whose contributions made his hometown paper informative and beloved.

Moran said the Times’ editor, Candace Rachel, was a steady presence in Plainville with a reporters’ notebook in hand and a camera slung over her shoulder. The senator said he was grateful the Sentinel’s owners, Bart Hamilton and Susan Hamilton Schneider, would maintain coverage of his hometown and Rooks County with the Sentinel-Times.

“I take sadness in the demise, the departure of my hometown paper. I take pleasure and pride in its continuation with news being covered by the Sentinel-Times,” he said.

The merger of the Times and Sentinel represents a trend in the Kansas newspaper industry. In 2025, the state had about 150 newspapers. In the past 20 years, approximately 50 newspapers closed or were merged with other publications. Most newspapers in Kansas publish weekly.

Moran said managing a newspaper in Kansas, and elsewhere in the United States, was a demanding quest.

“Today, community journalism faces growing challenges with a rapidly changing media environment as well as workforce struggles and financial strains,” he said.