In a recent edition of the Daily American Republic, we ran a story about layoffs at a major newspaper.
It's a common story in recent years.
The story you are less likely to hear is that of community papers like the DAR.
But community journalism is a story that needs to be told too.
Our staff is made up of people who grew up here, graduated from high school here and are raising their own families here now.
We cover the best and worst moments of the lives of our friends and neighbors. We strive to share what is going on locally with fairness, accuracy and compassion.
It can mean agonizing over the exact wording of a sensitive story, or staying at a meeting until midnight to make sure we have all the facts.
Community-based journalists are often the only voice to tell the story of how local cities and schools are spending your money. We are the only ones to follow a crime from the filing of charges to the sentencing of the perpetrator.
We offer a place where you can have confidence about who and what is being reported, because we verify sources and we seek out documentation and proof.
A community newspaper separates rumor from fact when reporting hard news stories, and we fill our pages with your children's accomplishments, your neighbor's celebrations and announcements about what is going on in your world.
It is still the most comprehensive and most trusted way to stay informed about a world where farmers sell fruits and vegetables in the parking lot of the Black River Coliseum on Saturdays, float trips on the Current River at Van Buren are a summer standard and Puxico homecoming celebrations fill the streets in August.
This is how the DAR has served this community for the past 150 years, and still does today.
-- Daily American Republic