Tara’s Takes
Local journalism is vital to our communities. As I’ve said before, we are the ones who are there for the celebrations and the heartbreaks in our communities. We cover city council meetings, high school sports, town celebrations, new businesses and tragedies. The newspaper brings our communities together.
Over the years, our industry has seen many changes. This is no different than most industries. At the Headlight Herald, we have more and more online subscribers. The majority of our online subscribers are those outside our local coverage area who still care about their local communities but want the newspaper when it comes out and don’t want to wait for out of area mail service.
Those stories are still written by local journalists. If you hear about something that was written in the paper from your neighbor, that was still written by a local journalist. We are capturing the graduation photos that will be looked back at for generations. Many times, we are the only member of the public attending a meeting. We cover the teams during championship seasons and down years.
The fact is, we’re here. We’ll always be here. We do this because we think this is vitally important, and we love our jobs and the communities we cover.
This brought us to a new opportunity.
The Minnesota News Institute has partnered with Give Media MN to create a unique opportunity. You may be familiar with GiveMN as they are the ones behind Give to the Max Day.
Through this new partnership, we are kicking off “Local News Giving Day.” This week-long campaign starts today, April 23, with early giving and wraps up on Thursday, April 30, with our Give Day. This new partnership allows readers and supporters to give a tax deductible donation to their local newspaper through the link on our website www.headlightherald.com. The funds are tracked and donations to our specific paper will come back to us in the form of a grant.
We know we have people in our communities and beyond who are looking for ways to support journalism, especially local journalism.
This is the perfect fit. Any donations that are made to any of our four papers — The Lake Benton Valley Journal, Hendricks Pioneer, Tracy Area Headlight Herald and Tyler Area Tribute
— will go back to that specific paper. We will use any donations to continue to put forth the best local community newspapers we can.
Much like shopping local, your local support can go a long way in the future of local journalism. If you’re interested, please consider making a donation to any local newspaper participating in Local News Giving Day. Visit that newspaper’s website and contribute to the future of local journalism.
We thank all of our supporters, whether subscribers, readers or advertisers; your support means the world to us, and we truly appreciate it.
