Syndicated column: If you value journalism, support it

Gannett, publisher of USA Today and more than 200 newspapers including the one I work for, just announced more cost-cutting measures.

I get that it's a simple business equation. It's hard to work in the Gannett Machine without some mixed feelings. I'm trying to sit with my emotions and understand how I feel.

I'm grateful I have a job in a local newsroom. As someone who doesn't come from a traditional journalism background, I never thought I'd ever become a newspaper editor. My goal was to be a columnist.

But because I worked on the other side of the desk, submitting op-eds, cultivating relationships and caring about my community, I know I'm a better editor because of it.

I'm grateful I work with people who value my work regardless of the path I took to get here.

I don't work for Gannett; I work for my community. That's what I tell myself. Yes, I get a paycheck from Gannett, but my daily mission is to lift the voices of this community with the intention of elevating the conversations important to my city.

Big money earners at the corporate level are not looking over my shoulder. I'd be shocked if Mike Reed even knew who I was.

The people I work with do this job because they love this community. They love it enough to engage with the public and get yelled at during public forums because the newspaper isn't what it used to be.

The writers and editors here care enough to challenge every word that is written internally before it lands in print because they know our valuable resources are shrinking and we must choose wisely where we dedicate our time.

Local news matters.

Our local elections matter.

Our local school districts matter.

Our health care resources matter.

Our indigent populations matter.

Our police reforms matter.

All of the issues every city grapples with are worthy of a team of journalists who act as the eyes and ears of this democracy. I don't know who first said it, but it comes to mind now. "First, they came for journalists. We don't know what happened after that."

We're being eaten from the inside. Journalism is not valued by those who wish to hold on to wealth and power. Capitalism doesn't bode well for journalism.

It's a civic duty, but the government can't have control, either. Journalism must be funded somehow, some way by a public that values what the profession offers.

We must be able to write the stories that lift our community while also holding those in power to account so that those employed to run our cities, counties, states and country do so in the name of what the people have said they wanted.

Without a robust journalism infrastructure, how does the public learn? What will they really know?

I fear we will soon find out.

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