Newspapers Must Be Community Minded

In this hurry up, fast paced world we live in people say newspapers are dieing. But a newspaper that keeps its community ties, in my opinion, will continue to survive.
Today we live in a world where access to news is quick and easy. We have social media (which is not always correct but people read it), and other quick news sources. Television and radio can report news quickly but only give short versions of the news.
Today, newspaper also rely on digital print and websites to break stories. As weekly newspapers, even though we might know about a news story, we will probably not break it first because of the other news sources that I’ve mentioned.
So, how do newspapers survive? The way they always have.
The other day I was in a local service station and a lady was disappointed because she couldn’t find one of our newspapers. She was asking the if there were any newspapers from the week before left, noting her son was in a photograph and she wanted a copy.
I always keep copies in my vehicle for a couple of weeks so I went outside, retrieved the copy of the newspaper she was asking for and returned inside.
When I presented her with the newspaper she was so excited.
“Thank you, thank you,” she said. “This is going in my scrapbook, my son’s photograph is in this newspaper.”
Ironically, it was just a photograph of some construction the city was doing, but her son was doing some of the construction. You could hardly see him, but it was important to her.
That is what separates us from other news sources. Local news coverage and photographs.
In small community newspapers, there are always local photographs of people in the community, there is always local news that is important to the community and more importantly, most often the staff members of community newspapers reside in the community. Being a part of the community matters because as a resident the things that are important to everyone else in the community are just as important to you as an individual.
By telling my age a little, I’ve been working for community newspapers for 50 years. As a young reporter I learned that newspapers should be a reflection of the community they serve. That does not mean everything can be covered by the newspaper. News happens 24 hours a day and it’s impossible to be everywhere and cover everything.
There are several things that tie a community but the most important things include, the governments, schools and churches. That is because our local government sets our policies and spends our tax dollars. Our schools are educating our children and our churches provide valuable services to the community.
Newspapers also provide the areas they serve as a historical record of news and events that occur.
It is often that people visit newspaper offices looking for photographs and news stories that occurred years before and note the only record they can find is in the old newspaper.
Basically, a newspaper is charged with the responsibility of printing accurate, honest and comprehensive news stories. Providing information about events, things that are important to the community and more. Newspapers never take things at face value. Over the years I have learned that with most issues, there are hidden details that need to be discovered and reported.
Newspapers were founded on the basis of keeping government honest. No reflection on our local politicians or governments, but would you take the word of a politician at face value or would you want to see the documentation?
As a reporter, I feel it is our responsibility to write a complete, accurate, comprehensive and unbiased news article. It is also a reporter’s responsibility to remember the rights of others and to always remember and adhere to the First Amendment of our Constitution.
So, as long as newspapers continue to write accurate local news, write about the things of interest in the community, cover the government, schools and churches, and be a reflection of the community, they will survive.
While community newspapers may not always break the story first, we can do a more in-depth story with all the facts. We owe that to the communities we serve.
Also, for community newspapers to survive, they need the help of the community. People in the community must let the newspaper know what is going on and what is important to them.
If newspapers do their job and have community support, I believe they will always survive.