This week, as City Manager Wyatt Shields puts the final touches on the Fiscal Year 2025 budget recommendations he will present to the F.C. City Council on April 1, the News-Press has submitted a request for the City to resume its practice of purchasing weekly space in the paper to report directly to its citizens on important events and activities, the way it did effectively for seven years in the first decade of this century.

The City and City schools’ practice of each posting a full page of notices and events in the paper began at the initiative of the late City Manager Dan McKeever in 2001 and was terminated during the fiscal squeeze prompted by the global financial panic of 2007. Despite the City’s remarkable growth in the meantime, however, there has been no serious effort to restore that policy despite the fact that the News-Press has continued to publish without fail and be delivered to every household in Falls Church, including with redundancies by way of stacks of free papers in various public places.

Through this paper’s deft handling of its operations, it has been able to continue as one of now only two newspapers in the entire Northern Virginia region to still produce a widely distributed print edition each week. This is because we hold that print newspapers, as contrasted to solely online versions, are vital to a community, giving the opportunity for its citizens to read, think about, and share views based on a new edition each week. Studies show that reading information online or digitally does not produce nearly the same level of reader retention and resulting useful discourses as editions in print do. Our editor and managing editor made this case to the monthly luncheon of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce in remarks that can now be found online at www.fcnp.com/chamber-talk.

Moreover, having a viable general interest newspaper enhances a community’s value, including the value of its real estate. Having a good newspaper is good for business. This is why the mighty Falls Church News-Press can take its share of credit for the fabulous economic growth this community has experienced compared to others in the region.

But we must confess that we, too, are skating on thin ice in these times of great trouble for local papers. We are counting on our readers at all levels to pitch in and help. The most efficient way of doing this is through a dedication of a tiny fraction of City tax dollars going to provide a valuable public service that also helps to keep your local newspaper in business.

We urge our readers and all who share in the commitment to democracy in America that must include viable print newspapers to exert influence on the local City Council and City staff to ask them to grant the News-Press’ request for a restoration of the City and City schools’ weekly pages in their newspaper of record.