Alive and well, community newspapers continue to thrive
A popular thing to parrot these days is that print – newspapers in particular – is dying.
People who repeat such nonsense are dazzled by the modern technology of tablets, smartphones and the like. Those and other devices that allow the nearly instantaneous transmission of news are fantastic, to be sure, but they certainly have not signaled the demise of newspapers.
Much of the dire predictions about print, including a prominent report on TV’s “60 Minutes” a while back, fail to make a distinction about newspapers. For every metropolitan daily that cuts back, there are community newspapers being born.
Across the country, well established newspapers in smaller communities, like this one, are alive and well.
Small-town newspapers thrive because people want to read about the actions of their local officials and various items from ball games to birth announcements to ads that are available nowhere else, or if they are, not presented by professional journalists backed by decades of the community’s trust.
A 2011 survey found that 74 percent of people in small communities read their hometown paper each week, spending nearly 40 minutes with it and then sharing it with two or more people. It’s clear that when it comes to community newspapers, much like Mark Twain, their death was greatly exaggerated.
— Distributed by the W.Va. Press Association
It is true some news one cannot get anywhere else. What immediately comes to mind is the surprising election results in West Logan. I had to take several stiff drinks after I read the news to try to calm down. I think this news was too direct for me. It mostly covered the results without any fluff. Some people need to be given the news gently! I have high blood pressure and cannot take any sudden excitement.
The Logan Banner covers many other aspects of local news the national media does not pick up. For example, Major Ojeda going to Washington was impressive. I have never seen so many comments on one topic. Some people wrote to be supportive of the major, and some were just jealous of him. Ojeda was within shouting range of Obama! What would somebody like Ted Nugent pay to be that close to the president? I bet Ojeda shed tears while listening to the greatest orator since Winton Churchill read from his teleprompter.
Also, all this news on Landau cannot be gotten anywhere else! Other than Drudge Report, my favorite place to read news is the Logan Banner….hands down!