Imagine Your Community Without a Newspaper

By Kelli Bultena
Editor of the Lennox Independent

President of the South Dakota Newspaper Association Remember the saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?”

This week our newspaper, along with many other newspapers across South Dakota and North Dakota, is taking part in a “whiteout.” You no doubt picked up this issue and paused.

You may have flipped it over a couple of times, wondering if it was a practical joke or a press error.

Then you opened it.

It’s still here – the local news you’ve come to count on each week.

But what if it wasn’t?

This “whiteout” is meant to serve as a notice about the importance of newspapers across the state and the nation.

Imagine your community without a newspaper. The city council, the school board, the county commissioners make decisions every month that affect you and your community. What happens when no one is there to take those notes, or when there is no newspaper to publish those minutes?

How do you stay informed? Where is the record? The answer is simple. You don’t stay informed. There is no record.

This “whiteout” is meant to serve as a reminder of why we continue to document the lives and accomplishments of everyday people.

Imagine your community without a newspaper. The talk at morning coffee becomes hearsay. The scrapbooks for graduation would be so much harder to make.

“Did the football team win the homecoming game?”

“Is there a new business set to open on Main Street?”

“Do you know why the fire trucks were out on Monday?”

This “whiteout” is meant to serve as a wake-up call about the importance of you—our reader. Imagine your community without a newspaper.

Your support by subscribing, advertising, and contributing your local news is invaluable. Without you we can’t exist. It’s a partnership that we value and recognize.

This “whiteout” is meant to solidify our identity as your community newspaper.

We will continue to strive to be a watchdog for citizens, the cheerleader for local sports teams, and the record keeper for life’s big moments.

— Bultena is editor of the Lennox Independent and president of the South Dakota Newspaper Association. -30-