This week, I’ve been pondering the saying, “familiarity breeds contempt.” I’ve been in and out of newspapers for most of my professional life. If I’m being completely honest, it is surprising to find myself back in a newsroom.

You see, my husband was one of the very first cuts when the Harris family sold its newspaper chain. This was the first of many dominos to fall for rural Kansas journalism.

In my casual conversations, I tend to get one of two reactions about a local paper. Either 1) it isn’t what it once was or 2) it’s just a small-town paper.

Truthfully, it’s easy to let myself slip into the latter mindset. To tell myself that what happens at our rural paper doesn’t make a big impact.

But then I give myself a mental shake and realize that many small impacts can affect big change.

Case in point: you will read about the numerous awards our paper earned from the annual Kansas Press Association contest. Last year, the paper earned 31. This year, we weighed in at 46. Clearly, we’re doing some quality work around here, and I’m proud to be one part of the whole.

But what about mindset No. 1, some papers aren’t what they used to be?

Well, one part of competing in the newspaper contest is that this year, each of the editors who entered were tasked with judging a few categories from another state’s newspaper contest.

I’ve done this in the past, and would probably have volunteered, but this year we got volun-told what was happening.

I was a pretty good sport until I realized that with two newspapers, I had double the amount of entries to judge. This could sound like a drag, but it helped to improve my mindset and outlook.

I had the chance to judge headlines, commentaries and online coverage from a variety of news outlets in Texas. I was extremely impressed with what my colleagues in Texas are producing on a regular basis. Seriously, the quality of the editorial commentaries was sensational. I laughed and I also attacked my Kleenex box with a vengeance. I was deeply moved.

I also enjoy some of the finer points of journalism, especially headline writing. Seriously, how could I not love a headline that read “Pickle festival is a big dill”? I mean COME ON! I was laughing out loud.

The biggest chunk of my judging went to the online category. I watched SO MUCH Texas football coverage. I was scratching my head about the all-out efforts at covering game two of the season ... until I realized “Oh, this is Texas, and football is MASSIVE in Texas.”

So away I went with watching pregame shows, halftime shows and wrap-up shows ... about Texas high school football team regular season games.

But by far the most impactful part of the judging process was the two-year anniversary coverage of the Uvalde school shooting. My Kleenex box and I spent a quality three hours watching a video about each and every single victim of that tragedy.

Judging that entry was a sucker punch to the gut. The 19 students who died were born around the same time my son was. Hearing their memories shook me to the core.

No matter what medium the newspaper/news outlet uses, it’s important that one is present. To document history, but to also take a moment, as the Uvalde Leader News did, to summarize and look at where we are now on the journey. Karen Bonar Publisher