Musings

You are holding issue 151 of the Weekly News under my stewardship. In six weeks, on July 1, my fourth year of owning the La Conner Weekly News begins.

This is the second six page issue in your hands. Until last week, for 149 issues, it has been at least eight pages. The goal has been to increase the page count to 10 and 12 pages consistently, bringing you added coverage of the greater La Conner area. There have been 10 page editions on an occasional basis the past three years, always because of additional ads, often because of more legal notices.

An increase in advertising has been the limiting factor in the page count and not a dearth of news or capturing events in photographs. Staff and community contributors provide material that need space beyond eight pages regularly. Each page costs hundreds of dollars to pay staff, printing, mailing and associated costs.

Every page is paid for by the merchants, festivals, community organizations, concert and event coordinators, theatre groups and others bringing news of their businesses and events to you, the readership. And, also, legal notices.

Most advertising has disappeared in our shutdown economy. The Weekly News income has shrunk. The size of the paper reflects that.

But your profit in buying the paper is not merely transactional. You go to the hardware store for nails, the pharmacy for band aids, the bank for a loan, each a purchase that satisfies you and profits the business. Your newspaper is different, as is your post office.

For the price of a stamp you can reach someone across the country, but your stamp doesn’t cover the mailing costs. The government does that because the value of the post office in your community isn’t met by stamp sales. The post office is fundamental to anchoring your community.

Hardware stores, pharmacies and banks move away and you go to them. Nails are nails and band aids are band aids. The post office closes in a small town and the fabric of the community is torn.

What does the newspaper deliver? School sports scores, and also school elections and principal resignations. Government budget hearings and also government property purchases and sales. The funding of a new library, the Chamber of Commerce’s loss of its office and COVID-19 coverage as long as the virus persists are sole-sourced by this odd little privately run institution.

Then there is that whole democracy aspect, the only business named in the Constitution. The publisher is concerned for your getting factual information, your voice and view and your exercising your vote to make informed decisions, whether it is on a county commissioner’s election or the coming change in the climate.

No other business insists on your thinking or encourages your opinion of whatever color.

Some people’s passion is math, for others it is music. Some people build boats, others fish from them. Some heal, some teach. And a few odd ducks want you to know what is going on in your community, and more, want to know what you think about things and what you are going to do to contribute toward the future, where we will all live.

There is not much profit in that. Still publishers and newspapers persist. On July 1 issue 157 under my ownership will come out. That is only the start of my fourth year of publishing the La Conner Weekly News.

The count-up goes on. You will continue to hold my future – and yours – in your hands.