FREEMAN, S.D.(WNAX)- Most newspapers are facing difficult times, with rising costs and dropping subscriptions and revenue. That’s really hit home with small town papers.

Jeremy Waltner, publisher of the Freeman Courier, is taking a different path and moving toward memberships.

Waltner says it is a leap of faith for him in his community.

Waltner says while a community resource, he thinks most people realize they are also running a business.

Yearly subscriptions have been eighty dollars, but under the membership plan, subscribers can pay what they want.

Waltner says as the legal paper for the City of Freeman and Hutchinson County, they have to print at least fifty issues per year and maintain at least two hundred subscribers.