Local news matters more than ever

It shouldn’t require a proclamation by the governor to convince people that local news matters.

Certainly, as we’ve seen from the fires over the last three months, people are hungry for news that focuses on their community, something that has been The Record-Courier’s stock in trade for 140 years.

It has been a while since the term “hyperlocal” was embraced as a mission statement for local newspapers.

It’s a fancy 21^st moniker for a model that has continued since the birth of our nation, and one we embrace.

During the formative years around the founding of Nevada, printers would arrive in a boom town with a press and publish newspapers on pretty much anything they could find, including rags.

And people snapped up those early tomes, desperate for something to read in those mining camps.

For nearly every one of those towns that appeared, flourished and died as soon as the mine played out, there was a newspaper.

The Cryptkeeper for many of those publications is the Nevada State Library and Archives where titles like the Wabuska Mangler might still be found, along with the many other colorful nameplates that chronicled their dusty towns.

As much as we might grumble about social media, the fact is that many people get their news from those sources, in addition to more traditional outlets.

We don’t begrudge the competition, because it makes us sharper and holds us accountable to our community.

Because much as we love being recognized by our peers, it’s the continued patronage of our community that we value most.

As has been true since its founding, The Record-Courier is critically dependent on its subscribers and advertisers.

We believe there’s a future in local news and we recognize the critical importance of the work we’ve been tasked with.