Complete Story
07/22/2015
'Amish Facebook:' The Budget celebrates 125th anniversary
by Courtney Stanley, ONA Intern
“Rain and more rain. The sun looks very inviting in-between. Last evening we had a pretty rainbow dropping down into our pasture on both sides of the lane, or over the chicken house. God’s promises are sure.”
This is how many letters start in The Budget, a weekly newspaper based in Sugarcreek, Ohio, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year.
Sugarcreek and its surrounding areas are home to the largest Amish population in America, and The Budget is often referred to as “The Amish Newspaper,” according to its publisher Keith Rathbun.
The Budget has a local edition—the community newspaper of Sugarcreek—and a national edition, which publishes letters written by Amish or Mennonite scribes in America and on mission trips around the world.
Rathbun described the national edition as “the Amish Facebook,” because it provides a way for Amish people in communities around the world stay in touch with their families and friends.
“It goes back to the roots of journalism with community news,” Rathbun said.
The Budget’s 125th anniversary open house is another opportunity to bring the growing Amish community together.
The Budget has occupied this space for over 100 years, expanding once in 1980. Photo courtesy Bev Keller.
Since 1995 The Budget has held a scribe gathering every five years, but the 125th anniversary will be a larger celebration that will include community members beyond the Amish. The event is two years in the making, and The Budget even held a smaller-scale test run in 2010.
Around 700 people are expected to take part in the celebration, Rathbun said. Guests will be treated to hot dogs, popcorn, and homemade ice cream; a concert with Holmes County singer John Schmid, a popular musician in the Amish community; and a talk from Stephen Nolt, an Amish scholar.
Rathbun said it is a great opportunity for scribes to meet with the community, and he is excited for others in the newspaper industry to come and get a taste of a “truly unique paper.”
Publisher Keith Rathbun gives his opening remarks at the 2010 scribe gathering. Photo courtesy Bev Keller.
Rathbun started working at The Budget in 2000 after leaving his job as publisher of Cleveland Scene Magazine, a free alternative weekly. Moving from a newspaper where the main source of revenue came from selling liquor and bar advertisements to one that didn’t allow photos was intimidating, but Rathbun was intrigued and excited by Sugarcreek, a village where residents could choose from seven local newspapers.
“The people here appreciate newspapers. They love their newspapers,” Rathbun said.
Although Rathbun is confident in his paper’s continued success—after all, his principle audience rejects modern technology—he said he still worries that the Internet’s disruption of the print news market will affect The Budget’s ability to provide a cost-effective newspaper.
When Rathbun joined The Budget’s staff, the newspaper had 620 scribes across America and on mission trips around the world. Now it has 943.
A pin marks each settlement represented in The Budget. Currently, 49 states (all but Hawaii) and Ontario, Canada, are represented. Photo courtesy Bev Keller.
Contrary to reality television shows that show many leaving the Amish church, Rathbun said the Amish population is growing fast. Currently, there are nearly 300,000 Amish in America, Rathbun said, and the Amish population doubles about every 21 years.
An average family has five or six children, the majority of whom stay with the Amish church and start their own families.
Amish communities like to stay at around 10 to 25 families in each community, so when the population grows too large, families migrate out and start a new community. The migrations results in more scribes in new locations.
“We like to say we have more writers across the country than the New York Times does,” Rathbun said.
With writers in so many locations, The Budget publishes personal stories and perspectives on world events.
For instance, when an airplane crashed on an Amish farm in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, the local scribe wrote about it in The Budget.
The Budget receives around 400 or more handwritten letters each week.
With more than 900 writers, The Budget cannot pay its scribes, but it tries to ensure they have no expenses. Each scribe is given a tablet of paper, envelopes with prepaid postage, and a calendar. The Budget guarantees its scribes every letter they take the time to write will go in the paper.
“They do it because it’s important to them in the community—they’re historians,” Rathbun said. “Not only are we a newspaper, we’re a historical document for them.”
Since the Amish have no birth certificates, Rathbun said if an Amish person needs to get a social security number to apply for a job they can use The Budget’s archive, which extends back to May 1890, to find the issue that announced their birth.
Amish communities around the world use the Ohio-based Budget to track their relatives’ lives and make announcements of births, marriages, and deaths. Without the modern conveniences of phones, email, or Facebook, “It’s the way they stay in touch with each other,” Rathbun said.
The Budget’s 125th anniversary open house will be held Friday, Aug. 7, 1 – 5 p.m. with music at 7 p.m.
