Your local newspaper, The Messenger, historically was a little bit of everything from a news and information perspective.

It provides local news that was uniquely sourced but it also provided ample amounts of state, national, and world news. It provides television listings, comics, business and stock news. It reports local high school sports, college sports with an emphasis on Iowa universities, and professional sports.

As media has fragmented and evolved, national and world news are available in many forums including broadcast media, national talk radio, and the internet. But local news is now the primary domain of local newspapers and no other entity has the resources to gather and report on community news like your local newspaper. The newspaper reports in-depth on city council, county supervisors, public safety, local health, and education issues as it affects your local community.

In areas where newspapers have disappeared, city and county governments, school boards, and other governing entities no longer have a publicly trusted source to keep their actions transparent, honest, and legal. It doesn’t mean everyone goes rogue without monitoring, but people in power often act with more discretion and with the public’s interest in mind when they know their actions are being reported and shared with the public.

Newspapers fill a critical role in our community and our society. The founding fathers recognized this which is why the first amendment to the Constitution allows for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Newspapers traditionally have also been a means for businesses to market their wares and services. Newspaper subscribers pay hundreds of dollars per year for their local newspaper. They want to be informed of what is happening in their community and they look to their local newspaper on where to get the best deals and services. Some businesses in recent years think that newspapers no longer deliver customers to their door. That is patently false. Newspaper ads are read by every paying subscriber. Newspaper subscribers shop at the businesses they see in their newspaper. To many of our readers, their newspaper serves a similar function as a smartphone. It provides the information they are seeking and it shows them various options for where they can use their buying power to get items and services they need.

Please support your local newspaper. You are supporting local jobs, local businesses, and your dollars invested are serving the greater needs of the community by providing uniquely sourced, trusted information that makes our community function for all of us.

Grant Gibbons is publisher of The Messenger.