Braxton Citizens' News

In this weeks edition:

A telling example…
I exchange papers with the Moorefield Examiner, among others. Dave and Phoebe Heishman have been friends for a number of years. They have passed the reigns of their newspaper on to their daughter Hannah. When the paper arrived last week, I was a bit startled. I initially thought it was a bad copy that wasn’t caught in production. As you can see by the photo it looks a bit unusual. As I examined it, I learned the truth. As their page 2 brief editorial explained:
It’s no mistake… Our front page is blank except legal requirements for mailing. As the editorial stated two weeks ago: Unless people continue reading and, especially, advertising in community newspapers, we’re done. Readership helps: You know what’s happening, and the higher our readership, the easier it is to convince local businesses to purchase advertising. It’s advertising that keeps us reporting, printing, and mailing. This time, front page stories are elsewhere in the paper and there will be a paper next week. If we all don’t start caring and enabling local news, though, the future is grim, and not far off — not just in Moorefield, but for any locally owned, community newspaper.
Newspapers are being attacked throughout the country. I think we have withstood the pressure of social media. Our degree of accuracy is enough to put our industry in a different category than most professed news agencies you find on social media platforms.
The part that really bothers me is the attack from elected officials. I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise since we are the ones that most usually criticize them, and report on their ill deeds both on and off the job. Yes, some of this opposition is per vindictive. The balance is simply the fact that they don’t really want to be answerable to the public.
Think for a minute, what it would be like if Hannah Heishman is right and independent newspaper cease to exist? Why do politicians birth phrases like “fake news”? Why are they working daily to take legal advertising out of newspapers and hide them on some obscure website? History shows that, not all politicians are honest. It is the newspaper industry’s responsibility to be the watchdog that keeps them from totally running over those who elected them. If you think the world has problems now… wait till newspapers don’t print “real news” and the legal advertisement to sell your property is hidden so some politician or their cronies can buy it cheap. I’m not saying we do everything right. I’m not upholding bad apples in my profession or any other. But, believe me, it could be a whole lot worse! Take Hannah’s advise and support your local newspaper, don’t wait till you don’t have it, to appreciate it.