Readers will see that on the front page of this edition a “QR Code” image in the lower right corner. Scan it, and the News-Press website appealing for cash contributions comes up. This highly-convenient method, we hope, will encourage those readers who recognize the importance of a free press as a vital and functioning component of our democracy to pitch in to help our version of that to keep going. We thank the many of our readers who have given to date, and we must expand that support base to, if you haven’t yet, include you!
It hardly needs mentioning how bad the current climate is for real newspapers to survive these days. As of now, this newspaper is the only one in this region that still prints and delivers for “total market coverage” of its targeted area. Compared to how it was when we first began in 1991, the decline is astounding.
The presence of a tactile printed newspaper is still a vital component of a strong community, and of a democratic nation. It functions as a social glue, so to speak, binding diverse elements of a community together by providing a context in which differences, including different views, are shared and debated in a civil and constructive manner. For a democracy, good newspapers are not just calendars of events or public notices, nor mere propaganda under the guise of news peddling a particular point of view. No, they are the grist that moves between people and puts everyone on an equal footing to debate, even if the debate is over how well a paper is doing its job.
At the News-Press we are proud of our role helping to get a lot done for Falls Church over 33 years. Look at the school system! Look at the economic development that helps pay for those schools while lowering real estate taxes! Look at the good government and the quality of life! Look at the shared, community-wide commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion! What a terrific place to live!
Housing prices are the downside, but of course not only here. If the powers that be here can remain focused on achieving significant affordable housing, and we intend to do our part in that regard, then this Little City will have even more to tout as being exemplary for the region and the whole country.
The News-Press has been a free service to this community this whole time. But if starting in 1991, we’d had just 1,000 readers giving a mere $10 (two visits to Starbucks) a month over this time, we’d have almost $4 million more to work with now.
The bottom line is this: We want to continue but can’t do it without your support. We are hardly immune from the conditions that have devastated our industry. We must rely now on the good people in this community to step up and pitch in to keep us going. Won’t you?
