We don’t often get weeks like this past one and thank the good Lord for that.
For those keeping track, since our last edition rolled off the presses we have had two stabbings, one shooting, one alleged attempted bank robbery, and two structure fires; one of them believed to be a case of arson.
That and our neighbors up the road in Knox County have lost their newspaper of record, at least for the time being.
The travails our neighbors are enduring this week makes us think of our own mortality. The Lincoln County News has been in existence in one form or another since 1875. The Roberts family has owned this newspaper since 1920.
We are on relatively solid ground, but really we are only as strong as the community that supports us. If our customers go away, then we go away. We’ll have to. We’re a small business, too.
Thoughts like this keep this editor up at night.
The thing that sank the Village Soup is the same thing that is sinking our larger brethren like the Portland Press Herald, and the very thing that keeps us and our peers like the Boothbay Register and the Ellsworth American afloat.
Community newspapers like The Lincoln County News are surviving precisely because we focus on community news.
There are a million places where you can find out what the President did today. There are precious few outlets that will tell you what the Jefferson Board of Selectmen has to say.
On the whole, our local boards, civic groups, schools, students, sports and events all play vital roles in our communities. In a very tangible way, their activities shape our day-to-day lives.
By reporting those things, community newspapers provide a valuable service. As a group we are not thriving exactly. Nobody is getting rich, but we are holding our own, even as the methods and means of our industry change by the day.
For quite some time we have heard our neighbors up the road bemoan the state of their local news coverage. We are excited by and encourage Reade Brower and his efforts to provide what Knox County sorely needs, a good reliable source for local news, even if it means competition for us.
Competition is good. It’s healthy. It’s good for us, and it’s better for you, the consumer.
By focusing less on what mattered to people in his service area, Village Soup owner Richard Anderson provided less service. Because of that, he and his product became expendable.
If nobody cares, then whatever vision you might have is irrelevant.
There is a lesson in there, and it’s one we take to heart.
