Golis: You don’t want to imagine life without local news

Writing about the essential nature of news organizations comes with the usual caveat: As someone who has spent his adult life as a journalist, I won't be confused with an innocent bystander. When it comes to believing in local news, I stand guilty as charged.

Still, people who live in Sonoma County should welcome the news that their local news company passed an economic milestone last week. Homegrown Sonoma Media Investments, owner of The Press Democrat and its sister publications since 2012, announced that it is now debt-free and poised to go forward.

If this doesn't sound like a big deal, you're not aware of all the ways that technology has changed the economics of the news business. Here's what researchers at the University of North Carolina determined last year: 'More than one in five papers has closed over the past decade and a half, leaving thousands of our communities at risk of becoming news deserts.'

According to the Pew Research Center, 1 in 4 news jobs in America disappeared in the past decade.

At this point, you should stop and think about all the ways that local news — in print and online — matters in your life.

You name the topic. From hometown success stories to high school sports, from entertainment news to grocery ads, from letters to the editor to comics — for more reasons than we can count, people look to their local newspaper and its website.

Consider, for example, how local news outlets become your eyes and ears on local government. A working paper at the Journal of Financial Economics has already concluded that when local news organizations go away, the cost of government goes up.

No one should be surprised. Free from the scrutiny of journalists, local agencies will be tempted to choose what is politically convenient.

Reliable sources of information remain essential to a healthy community and to a healthy democracy.

Here in Sonoma County, it doesn't require imagination to understand the role of a hometown newspaper — this newspaper — in holding a community together in tough times. For its work during and after the disastrous fires of October 2017, The Press Democrat's newsroom won a Pulitzer Prize, which is merely the highest honor available to any journalistic enterprise.

Among the many significant roles played by a hometown news organization, there is this: Local news provides a common understanding — a common language — for a community working to find solutions to its most pressing problems.

Here's the report from the University of North Carolina School of Media and Journalism: 'From our very beginnings as a nation, newspapers have played a vital role in building community. Strong newspapers fostered a sense of geographic identity and in the process nurtured social cohesion and grassroots political activism.'

We live in a time in which cynics rush to trash every public institution, news outlets (and their columnists) included.

But even the cynics know why they pick up their local newspaper or log in to its website. For a variety of reasons, it means something in their lives.

For better and worse, technology will continue to change the way we share information. Already, we have seen all the ways that information is more plentiful and immediate. At the same time, we have seen all the ways that new technology empowers those eager to bend the truth, and all the ways that technology creates echo chambers where people can hide from information that doesn't conform with their narrow views of the world.

When it comes to technology, no one is going to unring this bell.

Which means folks who value hometown news will need to accept that hometown news can't be free. All those reporters, editors and photographers can't do what they do as volunteers. Like everyone else, they need to pay the bills. Local news outlets will continue to need your support.

At the last, you will decide for yourself whether your hometown news is worth your investment of time and money.

I just know the place where I live is better because of the people — journalists and investors alike — who remain eager to tell Sonoma County's story, today and every day.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at Golispd@gmail.com.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@pressdemocrat.com