National Newspaper Week is here, officially recognized from Oct. 2-8. Here at The Republic, we welcome the opportunity to share important stories about our community and the broader world, and we take seriously our responsibility to report fairly, accurately and impartially.
But National Newspaper Week gives us an opportunity to tell you a little of our own story.
For all the doom-saying we’ve heard for years about community newspapers in print and online, we continue to be a steadfast source of reliable news and information. These days, with the explosion of partisan websites across the political spectrum, you can get your news served up with any bias you like.
But we local newspaper folks are different from a “content generator” (or a robot) posting or reposting items on social media looking to drive up clicks from a niche sliver of a particular demographic. And the most important things that set newspapers apart are that our people are here, and they aim to serve everyone in this community as best they can.
We cover the city and county meetings, the school board meetings, the ballgames. We watch what our public officials are up to, and as a watchdog for the public, we bark when something doesn’t seem quite right. We take time to get to know people in our community, and we open our pages to them and to you.
Likewise, we open this Opinion page to anyone in our community who has a view to share as a letter to the editor.
Through our website, we strive to make local events easy to post, view and share with just a click or two. If something is happening in our community, tell us about it so we — and you — can let everyone know.
We can never lose sight of the fact that this newspaper is a business, and we would not exist without the support of our community’s readers, subscribers and advertisers. Reliable information is a valuable community asset, and our mission is to be this community’s indispensable source of reliable information.
As with all businesses, the pandemic years have been a challenge for newspapers, but we also understand that times of crisis are the times when newspapers are most essential. We provide consistent coverage and reliable information regarding how COVID affects our community, just as we are committed to do whenever challenges arise.
Our pages, those printed on paper and those published on the web, are a chronicle of the life of this community. Many of us who do this work feel a calling to serve, and we understand that only with your trust can we do that.
Another way we aim to serve is this: We welcome your input. If you tell us we made a mistake, we check it out. Whenever we find we made a mistake, we correct it, publicly, on the page. That’s called accountability, and it represents and reinforces our abiding commitment to get that the facts right.
That’s important not just for our credibility, but also for history. Because as we go about our work, we do so with the profound and humbling understanding that 100 years from now, when someone is trying to research or understand some aspect of our history, they will go to the local public library and look up old issues of this newspaper.
That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.
