This is the brief period in each recent year that the Falls Church News-Press comes to its readers and supporters to ask for financial support. It is no mystery to anyone paying attention these days that print newspapers are suffering from drastic declines in revenues due to a variety of factors, and it is no different for the mighty News-Press. Too many of our peers have not succeeded in making it through these times, and have folded, been sold to hedge funds or other predatory entities that bleed them dry of their essential content, or reverted to online-only publication.

We feel strongly, that as we approach our 28th year, and 1,500 consecutive weekly editions delivered free of charge to every household in Falls Church, that there is no substitute for a good, reliable and trusty community newspaper. Online-only efforts can’t reach a total demographic, even when popular, the way a newspaper that is carrier-delivered to every doorstep in a community can. Most of our readers appreciate this, based on feedback we’ve received over the last two dozen years, as do our advertisers.

Our mission is not only to serve our readers in this community, but also the small businesses that need exposure to the community to thrive. We’ve offered a unique, targeted, affordable resource for these businesses to advertise their wares for many years, and we are proud of how this has helped shore up a growing retail and commercial sector in this community, creating jobs and generating economic growth. We cherish our alliances with the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce and the Creative Cauldron and other arts programs, and the good relationships we have with our state and city governments and our school system to keep the flow of independently-generated information and healthy public dialogues flourishing.

Our “Seven Point Program” of journalistic values that we publish every week was recently featured on an international platform, provided by the Dutch National Broadcasting Network, as a unique and valid, indispensable cornerstone of democracy, as an alternative to the present U.S. presidential administration’s ongoing attacks on a free press. We advise our readers to read, study and discuss those seven points. We don’t pretend that we’ve never violated them, ourselves, but we never really intend to.

We hope that the Falls Church News-Press serves as an example of the kind of commitment to good journalism and public discourse that we need much more of for a restoration of the positive civic values in our culture that are sorely needed.

We rely on our readers and supporters to step up and pitch in to help keep us solvent. We have placed a descriptive ad elsewhere in this edition that provides a link to the “GoFundMe” page where contribution can be safely made. Individuals can remain anonymous if they wish, but we are happy to provide generous advertising opportunities for those who contribute.

Won’t you chip in?