L.A. Japanese-American newspaper must get 10,000 subscribers by year's end -- or close its door
For 113 years, the Rafu Shimpo newspaper has chronicled the story of the Japanese American community in Southern California.
It survived World War II, when writers and editors were shipped off to internment camps. Before leaving, they hid the paper's Japanese type under office floorboards.
But if the money-losing paper doesn't raise about $500,000 in revenue — by more than doubling its subscribers — it could close in December, marking the end of one of the last English-Japanese dailies in the U.S., and the oldest.
"Some of the things we cover you can't get anywhere else," said Michael Komai, 64, the paper's publisher, whose family has run the Little Tokyo-based publication for three generations. "Some people aren't going to know they'll miss us until we're gone."
Like many papers, the Rafu has struggled to adjust to the changing media landscape. However, those issues have been amplified by its small community, aging readership and the greater assimilation of younger Japanese Americans compared with other Asian American communities.
(LATimes.com)
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