This week came the unsettling news that the Parsons Sun and Chanute Tribune have begun printing two newspapers a week, down from five.
It’s a cost-cutting measure. Fewer editions require fewer employees, less ink and paper, less postage and fewer resources all around.
As a neighbor, the Register has enjoyed a friendly and healthy sense of competition with the Tribune. Sometimes we share photos and sporting event reports. We follow their news closely, knowing it could impact what happens here, and frequently share it with our readers.
That’s how we stay connected as a region.
But people have got to want it.
Newspapers depend on subscribers and advertisers to pay the bills.
Here at the Register, we need new subscribers to make up for those we lose by natural attrition.
Our sales representatives beat the bushes to help local merchants and businesses promote their goods and services.
We strive to remain relevant not only with our news coverage but also how it’s presented in print and digital formats.
Longtime Parsons Sun reporter Colleen Williamson wrote a farewell piece in Saturday’s paper. “I used to tell people I would never retire from the Parsons Sun, that one day I would finally just keel over at my desk while writing what would be my final story.”
We can relate.
Like many careers, journalism is rewarding because it serves a purpose. We are a community’s eyes and ears at school and governmental meetings, helping explain the issues at hand by interviewing those who know.
We tell the good news of students earning awards and scholarships. We snap photos of your children in school plays and dance recitals and at summer league ball games and swim meets.
We interview our elderly, relating their valued experiences. We tell of new businesses and enterprises, hoping it helps bring them success. And we talk with people down on their luck, hoping our stories can somehow help.
We need our community to believe that these stories matter; that local news is worth paying for.
