Who covers your kids sports? Your local newspaper does. Who covers your city council or school board meetings? Your local newspaper does. Who covers a new business, an old business or a going out of business? Your local newspaper does. Who shows up at school events and town events? Your local newspaper does. Who runs your legal notices, your court reports, your business ads and even local obituaries? Your local newspaper does. Who covers local stories about local people in your little corner of the world? Your local newspaper does. Who cares about your small town and the politicians and people that run it? Your local newspaper does.

What people need to realize is that your town can only be as good as your local newspaper and your local paper can only be as good as the town who promotes it. Yes, it takes a village to keep every business up and running in a small town and your local newspaper is also a business that you might not want to lose.

Sure, you can brag about your child on social media and get a few of your closest friends to maybe see your post in their feed of 100 other things competing for their attention. Or you can submit it to your paper lady and have 1,700 eyes guaranteed to see it in your local newspaper. You can choose to only advertise your business on your social media and get a few likes or you can advertise with your local newspaper and hopefully get a few more people through your doors. You can also be guaranteed that there’s a group of people that usually work seven days a week covering all kinds of things that affect you or that are important to you because they are also important to your local paper.

So before your local newspaper has to close its doors and never take another picture of your child or grandchild’s first day of school or your senior’s last winning game, maybe you should really think about who really covers your small world. Maybe you should support them by buying a yearly subscription, by advertising your local business or your upcoming event or by promoting them during your local meetings. Because one day you might ask, “Who’s going to cover our little corner of the world?” And unfortunately no one will answer because your little local newspaper will no longer exist.