Community newspapers build community

Paul Archipley, President

The press is the only private industry specifically protected by name in the U.S. Constitution – in the First Amendment. Why? Because the founders understood that, for democracy to survive, it needs to have an informed citizenry. In those days, that meant newspapers.

But newspapers today are in crisis. They’re closing at a rate of more than two per week. Since 2005, some 3,500 have shut down, leaving many citizens in “news deserts.” They no longer have access to information about the community they live in.

Social media? No. Much of it is the web equivalent of talking to your neighbor over the back fence. Gossip. Misinformation. BS. What is factual, ie; news, is now being picked up by the social media giants from — you guessed it — newspapers. Without compensation. In some countries around the world, governments have forced those giants to start paying the media for the content they’ve been using. Legislators in the U.S. need to follow suit.

We’re covering the news that affects you, here, where you live. We cover the electeds you chose to decide how to spend your hard-earned tax dollars. We ask the hard questions they sometimes don’t want to answer. We demand transparency and accountability when community leaders would sometimes prefer to operate in secret. That’s community journalism. You won’t find it on social media.

Back when The Beacon was distributed for free, advertising – both display and classifieds – was a successful business model. Although advertising is still a major part of our revenue stream, we’ve also begun charging for subscriptions. We’ve cut corners everywhere we can think of.

But one thing we haven’t done is cut back on covering our communities. In fact, we’ve increased our coverage. Some readers mistakenly believe we’ve cut back because we’ve added coverage of adjacent communities. We’ve done that by adding pages, from eight pages per week to 12, sometimes 16, while not  decreasing coverage of your community.

We believe that readers can, and should be, informed beyond their city’s borders. After all, with rare exceptions, everyone leaves town for one reason or another. To visit friends. To shop. To eat out. To attend cultural and sporting events. And a host of other reasons.

We understand our readers have options, although options with legitimate, fact-based information, are decreasing as newspapers close their doors nationwide. Most of our readers are online now, but for a faithful bunch who still prefer print, we’re the only community newspaper in town.

We’re called a community newspaper because we build community. We’re covering what’s happening in your town as well as the towns next door with which you have a common history, geography, economy and social and cultural life. Every week, it reminds us who we are and shows us the best we can be.

We also want to give advertisers more bang for their buck. They understand they couldn’t survive on support from hometown citizens alone. They want  out-of-town customers. And we want to help them succeed.

Small businesses, including newspapers, represent 99.9% of all businesses, employ over 60 million workers – which is nearly half of the total U.S. workforce – and account for about 44% of U.S. economic activity. When you support small businesses that advertise in The Beacon, you’re supporting the backbone of America.

Even if you don’t own a business, we encourage you to advertise if you have goods or services to sell, upcoming events to promote or announcements to make.

Whether you’re a reader or advertiser, we’ve kept your costs as low as possible. Our printing costs over the past four years have doubled. DOUBLED. Mailing costs have gone up, too, almost yearly. As well as payroll and health insurance for our staff, utilities, supplies, and other overhead. Despite all that, our subscription price has remained the same.

However, we are, unfortunately, going to have to raise subscription prices. We’ve held them down as long as possible. But like so much in life, inflation is forcing our hand. We encourage readers who have a subscription already, or who have been thinking about subscribing, to do it now before our rates go up. And even with a higher rate, we’re still a bargain. A nearby competitor, for example, charges $6 per monthly issue. That’s four times what we charge.

To our regular subscribers, thank you for your support. If you want to help further, consider buying a gift subscription for a friend, family member or neighbor. There are monthly, half-year and yearly options.

We’re also inviting sponsorships and donations. If you’d like to see more coverage of some subject area, whether it be city hall, police and fire, schools or other subjects, include that request with your donation and we’ll direct your support to that area.

Again, an informed citizenry is fundamental to our democratic republic. Be informed where you live first, and support your community newspaper. Together we can make a difference.