Here at The Pickens Sentinel, we’re thankful for quite a lot.
First of all, we’re thankful that we’re still here. It’s been quite a rough year, as everyone knows, but the rough patch for newspapers started quite a bit before the economic downturn.
Newspapers have seen their fortunes take a turn for the worst, as they lose readers and advertisers to new media and, often, disinterest. Communities have seen once-strong dailies vanish without a trace, longtime presences in cities and towns now shuttered because of economic woes.
In the last several years, there’s been a lot of changes for the Sentinel. Some changes we’re happy about, others we wish we could do without. But every change we make is designed to make sure that the Sentinel continues to serve and be a part of the communities it’s covered since its birth in 1871. We don’t make changes to your newspaper – and this paper belongs to its readers as much as to the people who put it out every week – lightly, and we take feedback and criticism to heart whenever we hear it; we don’t dismiss it out of hand.
Each change you’ve seen over the last several years, from changes in the Sentinel’s format to the type of paper we’re printed on, has been to ensure that this paper can weather the current storm and whatever storms come over the horizon.
The staff here strongly believes in the importance of community newspapers. A community newspaper tells the stories that big media ignore. You won’t see much about Pickens on CNN. You won’t see Central on Fox News very often. You don’t read much about Easley in the New York Times.
We want to be here for you, and we want to be here for another 138 years. And we’re thankful for every new subscription, every ad, every time some plunks down 50 cents to buy an issue – all that make our future and continued success possible.
We’re thankful that we live in a country that realizes the importance of newspapers, and ensures newspapers’ protection in the very core of its principles.
We’re thankful that we live in a country where we can write what we want every week – no government looks over our shoulder as we go to press, or throws us in jail if we criticize them.
In other countries, newspapers are often the mouthpieces of government, and often further injustices and atrocities instead of crying out against them. A free press is essential to democracy.
We’re thankful that we live in a nation where we can speak out, either as individuals or in groups against what we see as injustice. The First Amendment protects our right to free speech and free assembly.
We’re thankful every time a veteran returns
home safely. Our nation’s leaders must make some big decisions soon regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we hope that, no matter what those decisions are, our troops receive the support, training, and equipment that they deserve, and continue to receive support and the benefits they earned when they return home.
We’re thankful for all of our readers – you all are the reason we do what we do. You’re quick to praise us when we do right, and maybe even quicker to call us out when we goof – and thank goodness for that. That is always in the back of our minds as we write and as we prepare for upcoming editions, and that’s why newspapers can offer something that Web sites and blogs often can’t – accountability.
We’re not out in the ether of the Internet, behind web addresses or screen names. You know who we are, and what we stand for. That keeps us honest, and that keeps us striving to improve.
We don’t know what the future will bring, for this newspaper or any of us, but we at The Pickens Sentinel wish all our readers and advertisers, and all our community, the very best holiday season and a wonderful year to come.
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