We all take things for granted; it’s human nature to do so. And unfortunately, one of the things people often take for granted is their newspaper.
Our readers have the expectation that they’ll get the information they want and need in their free weekly newspaper, whether they choose to look inside or not. If they want to know what happened at a town or school meeting, how the local teams did in every varsity sport, what club meetings and social gatherings are coming up, and what’s for sale, they know they can open the paper and find out. Free concert? We have the time and place. School play? It’s here, often with photos. Senior gathering? Got it.
You can see your children photographed at sporting events or in school. You can find out your neighbors’ opinions on the letters page. You can check the police log to see what the ruckus was all about, and yet, we hear all the time that people don’t read newspapers anymore.
No one has the time or the interest, people say. Tell that to our readers who call to ask us to include a notice in the weekly calendar at the last minute, or to get out the information on a club that’s forming. Tell that to someone who would love to have something kept out of the police log. Those things matter because people do, indeed, read the newspaper.
We know what happens if we miss an item you wanted to read. Better yet, talk with someone who lives in a community without a local newspaper. Imagine how hard it would be to find out what is going on in town and how the flavor of community life would be absent.
One of our readers recently wrote us asking for something to be included in the paper, and added, “Thank you for the free paper. It is invaluable. I don’t know how the citizens could get along without it. I know I would not know what was happening in these towns if I could not receive the paper each week.”
We hope that in some way, that writer speaks for each of our readers in each of our towns at some time.
It may be exciting when a daily newspaper or a TV crew comes in for a quick look at a town event. But, for consistent news reporting of events, week in and week out, your hometown newspaper fills the bill.
We won’t go the way of the dinosaur. There’s far too much going on to keep us busy for years to come.