If the The Bristol Press and The Herald of New Britain close, they will mark the spot where we turned a sad corner in this country. Ever since the printers who taught Benjamin Franklin the trade, there has been a place in the American town for a newspaper.
The industry has risen and fallen, to be sure. It has had dark days before.
The closure of newspapers in communities that once supported two, three or even more of them was common through the latter half of the 20th century. But that was consolidation. This is something different.
If newspapers close today, they will leave behind them not just a lack of competition, but a lack of news.
Newspapers bind together communities in a way nothing else does.
It will be a newspaper that tells you when your taxpayer money is misused. It will be a newspaper that tells you not that a candidate is running for office and saying such and so about his opponent, but who contributed to his campaign. It will be a newspaper that provides a public forum every day for dissenting points of view to hash out the important questions that face the community.
Plus, newspapers have the crossword puzzles and the funny pages.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
2 comments:
Well, okay, I would miss the crosswords...
Hearing that Bristol may lose its newpaper is a sad thought for this former Bristol Press newspaper delivery boy. Delivering the paper was a big part of my upbringing and it is just terrible to think that a city with the population of Bristol and no credible newspaper.
What is going on?
can someone tell me why this is happening?
robert j. krawiecki
robertjkrawiecki@gmail.com
cherry hill, new jersey
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