“The internet dissected your daily newspaper into its constituent parts, letting readers find the news they want without ever buying a paper or visiting a homepage – and handing the most lucrative part…, the advertising business, to companies such as Meta and Google that don’t produce news.”

In one succinct sentence, Washington Post opinion writer Megan McArdle told just about the whole story of the demise of local news in her column entitled, “The Great Age of Cord Cutting is Approaching Its End” published in the Post this Tuesday.

Our founder, owner and editor Nicholas F. Benton will be addressing the monthly luncheon meeting of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce on just this reality, its implications and what can be done about it this coming Tuesday, February 20, at the Italian Cafe in Falls Church. He will bring his more than 33 years of experience making the Falls Church News-Press work for more than 1,700 consecutive weekly editions delivered to every household in The Little City to bear on this question that is vital to our democracy.
The landscape for local news in Northern Virginia has changed dramatically over those more than three decades, and the News-Press has endured to become just about the only general news source in the region that still comes out in print.

How to understand what that means for the community it serves, and for those who have lost such a benefit over the years, as well as how and what needs to happen to ensure it continues to get done will be our editor’s subject. The new book, “Life and Times of the Falls Church News-Press,” by the late Charlie Clark, will be available for sale as a resource at the talk, which will also be recorded.

A good newspaper is more than just a chronicle of events in a community, but serves as a vital glue for the components that not only make up, but also seek to advance a community’s ability to provide for its public’s needs, especially as they involve core human and democratic values. For Mr. Benton, this has taken the form of continually shining a light on the community needs for, among other things, smart development, affordable housing and above all education of the young.

The internet and strictly digital sources have unwittingly contributed to the undermining of this approach by shattering information into countless discrete categories, thus disabling the ability of a community’s citizens to function from the standpoint of an overview of these combined values and needs.

Benton and the News-Press since its founding in 1991 have operated from the standpoint of advocating for those who cannot advocate for themselves, and that has meant promoting education for the young by encouraging the kind of economic development that can pay for a quality educational system. It has meant taking sides in opposition to those who resist such developments for selfish reasons, be they big corporate interests or citizens against constructive change.