Local newspapers play an important, irreplaceable role in our lives. Local newspapers cover high school and community sports. They keep track of events at schools and weekend gatherings that are what make communities great. They tell you what’s coming in entertainment.

They cover what’s happening and serve as watchdogs of local agencies. Do you want to go to every City Council or school board meeting and keep track of the happenings? If not, do you want someone to do it for you? Local newspapers do that. A local newspaper is much more authoritative than the local blogger.

In the last few years, many people were led to believe newspapers can’t compete with the internet. Not true. The real reporting of news on the internet, the coverage of government and well-written articles about events that matter most to you, they almost all come from newspapers.

Local newspapers are where we turn when we need to have a broader focus. They’re where we turn when there is crime or a fire in our neighborhood. They’re where we turn when our child graduates from high school and we want to see photos. They keep us abreast about how our community is affected by the pandemic and how local businesses are doing their best to provide services through the rollercoaster ride of 2020.

Newspapers cover all those things. And you know what else? Newspapers pay reporters and photographers and editors. Newspapers pay receptionists and payroll clerks and the folks who design advertisements (so you don’t have to pay 100 percent of the cost). Newspapers pay the people who work the printing press and those who make sure the newspaper gets delivered to your house.

And trust me, while newspapers pay all those people, none of the employees are getting rich.

If community newspapers were to go away, the first losers will be those who make a living there. But the biggest losers will be our communities, which will lose something impossible to replace.

Keep supporting things that matter. Local businesses and service which depend on the door-to-door distribution this and other community newspaper support.