The life of local news (papers)

A friend gave me this magazine article: “The death of local news: The watchdogs of America’s local and state governments are disappearing. Can they be saved?”

This Weekly News has stories on the latest town council and school board meetings in it. Under Sandy Stokes’ editorship, it won a statewide open government award for its lawsuit forcing Fire District 13 to turn over budget documents as public records.

At least a couple of people every Wednesday strike up a conversation over articles and editorials they have read. It is good to know that the state ferry system has a long-range plan to maintain and enlarge the fleet in the face of aging boats and increased ridership. The Salish was out of the water Saturday in an Anacortes shipyard. A page one photo proves it.

Who besides your local paper’s editor read the ferry report?

An academic study found when papers close local bond ratings go down: governments will do bad things when no one is reporting on them.

I, and you, are fortunate that newspapers are in La Conner’s DNA: Weekly we continue the history of being the site in Washington where weekly newspapers have been continuously published and read the longest.

In this smaller, late-1970s town, two newspapers were published for years, before the original Puget Sound Mail, managed by Dick Fallis was bested by Alan Pentz’ Channel Town Press.

This paper reports on activities on both sides of the channel. It covers citizen involvement in government and local candidates running for obscure, oddly named positions. It considers the demise of our orca population and our locally lax, lack of preparation for climate change.

Local news isn’t dying. The question needing to be answered is “will citizens save themselves: ‘A republic if you can keep it’?” What is the state of the local citizenry? How healthy is the readership – not physically, but in ‘being woke’?

Newspapers aren’t failing under competent and dedicated staffs. When residents stop buying the paper – and the paper subsidizes your purchase – and businesses skimp and skip on advertising – which is how the business of newspapers stay in business – it is not the paper’s failure.

Newspapers close. When they do, the entire community loses.

This is not a plea for help. Operations here are fine. But a paper’s real “business” is democracy, which cries out for your participation to be successful.

Residents and businesses love this small town. Everyone sings praises to this stubborn, strong local culture that insists on maintaining a way of life oddly at odds with the 21st century.

The questions are: Are folks paying attention to the town’s newspaper’s contribution to the town? Are folks: residents and merchants, paying enough? Are they investing in an institution that can literally disappear in the blink of an eye, even as it wins awards by reflecting the town back on itself?

Newspapers don’t lose value any more than a local hardware store loses value. Instead, people lose interest. A thing loses value when people don’t value it. Gold has no more intrinsic value then the Weekly News. The News, and news, is a matter of perspective.

It takes about six minutes to print 1,100 copies of this newspaper. The Weekly News is probably the minimum size for a newspaper as a viable business. The paper has great growth potential. Its success is dependent on the success of area residents living up to their potential as free citizens.

Free citizens: free to participate, or not, in every aspect of their community. Being a freeholder candidate, as important as developing a new charter is, pales in comparison.

A better title for this editorial: The life of local citizenship.