The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Jo Easton is senior director of development at the Bangor Daily News.
Today, more than 1,300 newsrooms and communities all around the country are marking Local News Day — a national day of action connecting communities with trusted news.
It’s a simple idea: Local is what matters most.
At the most basic level, no matter how interconnected the world is — or how awash we are in headlines from New York, Washington, D.C., or abroad — the lives we lead are local lives. How could they not be?
And the news and information we all need to live those local lives is local, too.
As a smart colleague pointed out recently, local news has been struggling because a disconnect developed between the business models capable of sustaining it and the reading habits of the public. And despite the huge changes at the BDN and beyond as we’ve adapted, the mission of our newsroom has never changed.
Local reporters cover town meetings and community events, sit through lengthy school board meetings and tell you what happened, diligently seek to understand and explain complex processes (like how a town deorganizes or forms — who knew?), bring you the highlights from exciting youth sporting events, and investigate to expose what is happening behind closed doors that the public deserves to know about.
Never miss a headline. Support local news and the team that keeps you informed when you subscribe. Subscribe for $49 today.
We’re proud we get to serve you with this work, and we’re proud to participate in Local News Day.
To celebrate, we’re hosting a digital Open House today: All day long, you’ll get unlimited, free access to bangordailynews.com and all we have to offer — read unlimited articles, play games, listen to articles, join a conversation in the comments, sign up for a free newsletter. No paywall, no subscription needed.
If you like what you see, we have a special offer for new subscribers (I ducked when I suggested it) for $49 for the first year of unlimited digital access. If you’re already a subscriber, or make an annual gift to The Fund for BDN Reporting, we hope you might consider a monthly donation to help smooth out the newsroom budget throughout the year. You can do that at donate.bangordailynews.com.
Today, we invite you to read, share, support the BDN and other local news outlets in Maine — and talk about the stories you find and the things you learn with others, so the ripple effect will spread.
