While GateHouse Media’s strategy to replace the Daily News Transcript with weekly newspaper coverage is a sound one, it’s no secret that the daily paper’s end comes at a trying time in the news business. Papers across the country are closing and cutting back as advertising revenue dries up and circulation drops. It’s hard to make a newspaper profitable these days, and the Daily News Transcript is partially a victim of that fact.
However, just because newspapers are struggling doesn’t mean the news they report on is any less relevant. Local papers like the Daily News Transcript and the weekly papers that will replace it serve an important function: informing citizens of the activities of their elected officials and thereby keeping the officials accountable to the citizens they represent.
Though it remains to be seen what would become of our democracy without news reporting, it’s easy to imagine it slipping towards corruption. With the cat away, the mice will play.
The flip side is that if no one is reading newspapers, what does it matter if they exist? A news story is only as effective as the readers it reaches.
With easy access to information from the around the globe 24 hours a day, news fatigue can set in. Even those who closely follow the news might put local news at the bottom of their list of priorities. With people living, working, and recreating all in different towns and cities—traveling by highway or fiber optic cable—the hometown paper starts to seem very last century.
But the decisions of local government still have an enormous impact on the lives of the citizens it governs, though they may not realize it or think about it often. The most obvious impact, of course, is on property taxes and public education, but even those who don’t own property or have children are protected by local police departments, have their trash hauled away by their city or town, and drive on roads maintained by departments of public works. Local government makes possible many important elements of the engine that keeps our society running smoothly. It cannot be weakened or corrupted.
As the Daily News Transcript staff members disperse to their respective weeklies, they take with them the experience and local knowledge they have gained at the Transcript. When you receive your weekly paper on Thursday, or visit a Wicked Local Web site, you can be assured you are looking at the definitive account of what’s happening in your town, how your tax money is being spent, and how your officials are serving—or not serving—you. This information is essential, and as long as you find time in your day to read about it, we will keep writing about it.
