Ridin' the Rapids

Community newspapers are more than the articles that appear weekly. They’re part of the civic backbone of the communities they serve.

For nearly fifty years, McKenzie River Reflections has filled that role in the McKenzie River Valley - covering schools and fire districts, county government and utilities, elections and public meetings, wildfires and rebuilding, businesses, volunteers and neighbors.

If I, or someone else, catches a mistake, the next issue will include a correction.

Reporting aims to preserve our community’s history. Years from now, much of the story of the Holiday Farm Fire, the rebuilding of Blue River and the changes that shaped this valley will survive in the River Reflections archives, not social media.

For generations, advertising had paid much of the cost of producing a community newspaper. Then the Internet changed that model.

Craigslist took away classified advertising. Social media platforms captured advertising. Businesses developed their own websites and online platforms, while readers became accustomed to finding news for free.

The result has been newspaper closures across Oregon and the nation, leaving some areas with little or no dedicated local news coverage.

I don’t want that to happen here.

Printing the newsstand edition, reporting, photography and maintaining a website all cost money. That’s why McKenzie River Reflections has joined the Oregon Public Information Partnership’s nonprofit donation program to help support the civic journalism the McKenzie River Valley deserves

You don’t need to contribute hundreds of dollars. A small, or monthly, donation from enough readers can make a meaningful difference.

Remember, a local newspaper helps a place “know itself.” It reports what government is doing, but it also tells the stories of our students, businesses, volunteers and neighbors - stories that are unlikely to appear anywhere else.

If a community newspaper disappears, people lose more than a business.

They lose a watchdog, a storyteller and part of their collective memory.

After nearly five decades of telling the McKenzie River Valley’s story, I believe that work is still worth doing.

I hope you do, too.

Show you support the civic journalism of McKenzie River Reflections at: tinyurl.com/8tbffks4