Joyce Terhaar’s column (“Communities lose when newspapers die or slide into decline,” March 10) in The Columbian brought back memories from 1955, when I started delivering The Seattle Times. Seattle had two major newspapers and several outlying communities and towns had their own papers.
We only had a couple of TV stations, Bill Gates was kicking slats out of his cradle, the internet was years away and the web was only a pipe dream. During this era, newspapers were a main source of world and local news. What caused me to compare 1955 to today and Miss Terhaar’s article is that so few people subscribed to The Seattle Times, which is one of the reasons newspapers are dying today. I could not understand why so many people were not interested in what was going on around them and their community.
Today, I am stilled puzzled as to why so many people don’t subscribe to a local paper to support the community and be better informed of what’s happening around them. Local newspapers are still the best source for local news. I am new to this area (2013) so, the first section I read every morning is Clark County. The Columbian has helped me become a “local.”
