Letter: Communities must keep local papers ticking
Published 12:45 am Tuesday, November 20, 2018
- Janet Springs takes a selfie of the Leadership Rowan class in the Salisbury Post newsroom.
My wife and I grew up in a town in Michigan that just lost its hometown newspaper after decades and decades of printing. It served a geographic area roughly two or three times the size of the Salisbury Post’s service area. Now I see the editor of the Salisbury Post for some 25 years, Elizabeth Cook, will retire at the end of this year. Somewhere I hear a clock ticking.
While I disagreed heartily with the Post’s politics most of the time, it still IS our only “hometown” newspaper. I enjoy my morning coffee, feet on my desk, while reading about local happenings, the news, the comics and local sports. The website is a poor substitute, suitable for the millennials and the electronically gifted. There is something old-fashioned comfortable about “reading the papers.” I was unhappy to see the cessation of Saturday and Monday printing (tick tock, tick tock) but still kept the paper. The daily paper is getting thinner and thinner (tick tock, tick tock).
Dear Editor, is there something we, as readers, can do to keep The Post ticking? I’d hate to see another business obituary.
— Larry Laatsch
Salisbury
Editor’s response: Readership and advertising are the lifeblood of local newspapers. Please continue to read the Post, support our advertisers and encourage others to do the same. And remember that the mission of the local paper is to report local news, sports and features, not to carry out a national agenda.