Newspapers across the county are celebrating National Newspaper Week, an observance usually made by printing verbose editorials celebrating the newspaper’s importance to the community it serves.
We decided to take a different tactic. We decided to show you how a newspaper can continue to be valuable, even now. On the front page of the newspaper this week, we published two articles involving campaign finances. One focuses on what was spent in the local political contests for city council and county commission while the other highlights campaign contributions made to Liz Cheney and Ryan Greene in their campaigns for the state’s sole U.S. House of Representatives seat.
Campaign finances are an important subject. On the surface, money in political campaigns can translate to support for a particular candidate. However, more questions can come from looking at campaign finance, such as why a candidate running for Sweetwater County Commissioner decides to spend more than $20,000 on their campaign. With Cheney’s finances, a question of why so much funding is coming from outside Wyoming into her campaign, as well as why it requires more than $1 million to accomplish. Unfortunately, those questions will go unanswered for the time being, as Cheney’s campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests we made for comment.
Regardless, these are the kinds of stories readers won’t see cropping up on social media. They’re the sort that won’t get mentioned in depth on the radio or most online news services. They require time, something unheard of in a digital landscape that seeks to publish any piece of information as soon as possible. The weekly newspaper should not be the kind of publication dealing in snippets of information; their true value lies within the depth of information they present. One may find out something happened, but newspapers are often the place to find out why something happened. Newspapers should move beyond the initial press releases and give more information than is readily available.
Newspapers continue to be a trusted source of information for many communities and newspapers have always been the daily and weekly records of the communities they serve. Yes, more avenues to receive information exist now than have ever before, but newspapers should strive to go beyond the press releases instantaneously posted to social media. That is where newspapers are the strongest.
Others can say they offer information faster than the daily or weekly newspaper, but they can’t say they do it better than a newspaper.
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