This week, running through Saturday, October 8, is National Newspaper Week. The annual observance of the service that newspapers and their employees provide to their communities has been in existence since 1940; what is printed within the pages of newspapers has certainly changed since then, but the importance of the medium has not. And here at the West Essex Tribune we are proud to be one of the only remaining independent newspapers in the state, bringing our community the stories that matter to them.The newspaper looks a heck of a lot different than it did eight decades ago (and longer for us, as we first started printing 93 years ago, in 1929), but we’re still here, and proud of it. For nine-plus decades, the Tribune has been tailored to our town, emphasizing the things that affect us most directly and keeping track of what is going on in the township so that our readers don’t have to worry about missing anything. We have been happy to have you all along for the ride.When discussing National Newspaper Week, Ken Paulson, the director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, explained how crucial papers are to the greater news ecosystem: “Watch tonight’s local TV newscast. Tune into a local radio station for its five minutes of news. Tally the total number of stories and see how many actually involve reporting by the station’s newsroom. How many stories just sound like they were pulled from a newspaper? They may well have been. Then hop onto your Facebook or Twitter feed and see how many posts link to newspaper articles. If they link to other media, click to see where those outlets got their information.”Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism at the University of Kentucky, put it even more succinctly: “Social media have no discipline and no verification. And they’re mainly about opinion, not facts. Journalism, especially in newspapers, is mainly about facts, not opinion. Opinions are the heartbeat of a democracy, but they should be based on facts. And for the facts, we need newspapers.”Earlier this year, the National Newspaper Association commissioned a survey conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research. The survey found local newspapers to be the most trusted source when it comes to learning about candidates for public office. On a ten-point scale, local newspapers rated 7.38 among participants. That was higher than TV stations ...
