Local papers are an endangered species

We are bombarded with news on television, on our phones, our laptops and tablets, our car radios and in newspapers.

But with all the messaging coming at us, there is only one place for information that is most relevant to you, your family and your community. The most vital news source is right here at home in your local newspaper.

La Conner has been the headquarters for a weekly newspaper for almost 150 years. In today’s 24-hour news cycle, it’s tough for traditional newspapers to stay in publication – La Conner Weekly News is one of the last holdouts in a dying industry.

Classified ads have gone to Craigslist and display ads have migrated into “junk mail” publications. In recent years more than a dozen little papers and even several big papers in this state have shut down. Others have gone from daily to thrice weekly or been gobbled up by big media chains.

When the chains take over the local papers, you sometimes start seeing the same stories across communities as corporate media companies tend to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to news. Often the local papers end up being folded into one regional publication with less emphasis on each community.

La Conner Weekly News is one of the last independent, locally owned newspapers in the state and it is Skagit County’s only legally court-adjudicated newspaper that is not owned by a larger media company.

That means little La Conner still has its own true voice.

If you don’t like what’s in the paper you can stop into the office of your local publisher, Ken Stern, and pitch a better idea. You can even volunteer to give your point of view, like I’m doing right now.

A newspaper’s main purpose is to tell residents what their local elected officials and community leaders are doing to affect their lives. This is where you find out when your utility bills and taxes are going up, what is happening in the local schools and even who’s playing at the next concert in Maple Hall.

This is also where you can see your child’s picture on the front page, so you can cut it out to stick on the refrigerator or buy extra copies to send to grandparents.

Most people don’t realize how much it costs to produce a little newspaper. For example, if every single copy La Conner Weekly News was sold for one dollar, there still wouldn’t be enough money to cover the cost to produce it every week. Subscription rates would be drastically higher if readers were expected to pay all the business expenses. Advertising makes up the difference and is essential to the newspaper’s survival.

La Conner came very close to losing its local voice for good in 2006 when the old Channel Town Press sank. People in the community jumped into help La Conner Weekly News get off the ground twelve years ago. Some very kind local businesses have been running ads in the paper every single week without fail, and I’m sure it’s mostly just to help keep the paper alive.

Traditionally, many people and organizations look to the newspaper to promote their causes or their own businesses as a public service for no charge. While local papers often donate space to keep the readership informed, it’s important to remember that “free” publicity just means that someone at the paper is working without pay and still has to cover the production costs.

Most of the time, a home town newspaper is more of a community service than a viable business. That’s very true of La Conner Weekly News, which, like every small business in town is part of our local identity with an owner working very hard to keep it going.

But without community support, even well-loved little newspapers like this one will die.

Sandy Stokes is president of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association board, WNPA’s Olympia news bureau chief and a former editor and co-owner of La Conner Weekly News.