Newspapers inform, educate communities

Welcome to National Newspaper Week! We’re excited you’ve joined us for the 82nd annual celebration, which runs Oct. 2-8.

We realize that fairly recently, we published an editorial about the I-R’s 150th anniversary and more or less threw ourselves a parade. So why are we doing it again? Because, even in our digital world, newspapers are still relevant. Even if you read our content online, the news was gathered and edited by trained journalists.

Interestingly, when our new city manager stopped by the I-R office in his first few days on the job, he was excited the city had an active newspaper. He points to the papar “Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance,” which states ““Following a newspaper closure, municipal borrowing costs increase by 5 to 11 basis points, costing the municipality an additional $650,000 per issue. ... The loss of government monitoring resulting from a closure is associated with higher government wages and deficits, and increased likelihoods of costly advance refunding and negotiated sales. Overall, our results indicate that local newspapers hold their governments accountable, keeping municipal borrowing costs low and ultimately saving local taxpayers money.”

Additionally, when a newspaper is absent, there are fewer registered voters, and those who take the time to vote tend to do so less often. With elections this year, we continue to elect those who will represent our interests at a state level. Do you want fewer individuals choosing who is representing our interests as a community?

Let’s talk about a phrase you may or may not be familiar with: news desert. A news desert is a community where residents have significantly diminished access to local news and information that feeds grassroots democracy. Today, more than 200 of the nation’s 3,143 counties have no local newspaper, according to usnewsdeserts.com.

From 2005 to 2020, more than a quarter of our country’s newspapers disappeared. At least 1,800 communities that had newspapers in 2004 did not by the year 2020. In that same timespan, half of local journalists left the news business to find other jobs.

According to the Poynter Institute (which keeps an eye on industry trends), 70 million residents — or a fifth of the population — live in communities without easy and affordable access to critical and credible local news. Earlier this year, Poynter further reported that from 2019-2022, 360 newspapers closed — almost all of them weekly publications. Many of the closures were in rural locations with less affluence.

Similarly, in “news deserts,” there are no journalists to double check (or fact check) press releases that are sent out. While we applaud communication offices, their goal is to sell their organization or product. Sometimes facts are massaged to paint that organization in the best light possible. Local journalists and newspapers often ask questions that probe beyond a press release.

Sorry to throw a bunch of “gloom and doom” numbers and figures at you. It’s our way of pointing out how vital a newspaper is to a community, while at the same time expressing our gratitude for the continued community support.

We are grateful to our readers — near and far — who continue to subscribe to the I-R. The active interest in local news keeps us going.

Similarly, our advertisers who continue to support our efforts are appreciated. It takes both readers and advertisers to produce our weekly newspaper.

We are honored to have a 150-year legacy in Ellsworth County, and are committed to continue to report the news to keep our community vibrant. Karen Bonar Publisher