Rooted in community, committed to truth

National Newspaper Week kicks off today and runs through Saturday, Oct. 10. The official theme is “Rooted in community, committed to truth.”

I can’t think of a better way to describe what a strong local newspaper should aspire to be.

We are living in a time when information is everywhere but knowing what to trust can be harder than ever. That is especially true during election season, when our inboxes, social media feeds and phones are filled with claims, opinions, misinformation and, sometimes, information deliberately designed to mislead.

Our job is different. And so is our mission.

Our reporters live here. They attend the meetings, ask the questions, talk with the people involved, check the facts and put their names on their work. We make mistakes, too, but when we do, we own them and correct them. Trust is something we have to earn, one story at a time.

But being rooted in a community means more than covering it.

Increasingly, I believe our responsibility is to participate in building a stronger, more connected community, while preserving the independence required to report on it honestly.

That thinking is behind programs such as Civic Voices, where we introduced more than 120 Kalispell Middle School students to news literacy and journalism. It continued this summer through our Storytelling Bootcamp, where young people learned to interview, photograph and tell the stories of people in downtown Kalispell.

It is behind our local first efforts to strengthen the relationship between our staff and the communities we serve. And it is behind projects like “Wrap local. Give local” our partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Glacier Country that turns artwork created by local kids into wrapping paper that supports an organization serving local families.

Those may not sound like traditional newspaper programs. That is precisely the point.

A community newspaper cannot simply stand on the sidelines and tell people it is important. We have to demonstrate our value every day. We need to listen. We need to connect people. We need to help young people understand how credible information is gathered. We need to celebrate what makes this place special while still asking difficult questions when they need to be asked.

The way people consume news will continue to change.

What should not change is the need for independent local journalism produced by people who know, care about and are invested in the communities they cover.

That is what it means to be rooted in community and committed to truth.

If you believe in that mission, support local journalism by subscribing, advertising, or making a contribution at dailyinterlake.com/support.

Anton Kaufer is Regional Publisher for Hagadone Media Montana.