Local Newspapers Are Here Because of You

“The newspaper does everything for us...comforts the afflicted, afflicts the comfortable.” Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American journalist and humorist

This is one of my all-time favorite quotes. Early in my career as a journalist, I was having a bad day. This very experienced newspaperman who was one of my first bosses asked me what I thought my job as a journalist was. After I gave him the typical journalism school answer, he recited Dunne’s quote to me, and it has stuck with me since I was that 21-year-old novice journalist.

It is National Newspaper Week, Oct. 2-8. These are seven days s...