Working in news or media can be exciting and dynam...

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I thought I'd share this editorial I wrote last year. Many are saying newspapers are dead, but I just don't think they're quite ready to give up the ghost just yet. Consider this: As the U.S. prepares to observe National Newspaper Day this Sunday (Oct. 2) and National Newspaper Week next week, it is an appropriate time to reflect on what a newspaper means to the communities it serves.
As I thought about that, it occurred to me that community newspapers can be compared to the “Night’s Watch” in a popular book and television series. The reporters, editors and supporting staff of those newspapers may not realize it, but they have taken that same oath.
“Night gathers, and now my watch begins. … I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.”
Your community newspaper has a responsibility to inform, instruct, inspire, enlighten and entertain its readers. It has a duty to be truthful, accurate and unbiased in the way it covers the news of its community. The writers and editors should also be committed to paying attention to spelling and the rules of English grammar with proper punctuation, syntax and word choice.
The newspaper need not have won a Pulitzer Prize to prove its worth as the “sword in the darkness” and the “shield that guards the realms of men.” Having a newspaper in a community is similar to having a standing army during peacetime. It serves as a deterrent to those who might otherwise try to take advantage of a “defenseless” public.
Some reporters are the sword of truth in the darkness, the “ranger” who goes into the wilderness to seek and expose. Others are the shield who mans the wall, ready to defend the community when a threat appears.
Most local reporters spend their careers writing about local government meetings, events, festivals, features on notable achievements and other “dull” happenings. But to the community newspaper, nothing is dull or boring. If a story is important to even a few of its readers, it is important to the newspaper.
Readers should be more like active partners in the newspaper’s mission, and not passive spectators. Let the newspaper know what YOU think is important and let them know if/when they disappoint you and how they can do better.
There are many who have already written the obit of newspapers, contending that the days of the printed news are past. I believe they are wrong. I hope there is another generation of newspapermen who are in high school considering journalism as a career, in college pursuing a degree to enter that profession or in the early years of their work as a reporter.
For that new generation of journalists we say, now your watch begins -- “for this night and all the nights to come.”

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