October 5, 2016

AS I SEE IT

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

This week, the McKenzie County Farmer along with newspapers across the country is celebrating National NewspapersWeek, with its theme: “Way to Know.”
And what a great theme it is as newspapers are truly the very best means for people to really know what is going on in their communities. Quite literally newspapers are your door to knowing what is happening in your local government, your schools, and your community. Newspapers, like the McKenzie County Farmer, are your very best source for information that affects your daily life.
Yes, there is radio and television, the Internet, and a wide range of social media platforms, including Facebook, that also provides information to the public. But there is only one media source that gives you all of the information that you need to understand the issues. And that source is your local newspaper.
Can you imagine living in a community without a local newspaper? How would you know how the decisions of your city and county government leaders will affect your lives or your taxes? How would you know what is happening in your local schools or how your sporting teams are doing? How would you know what community events are upcoming or what specials local merchants are offering to their customers?
You might say that you would just get your information from the Internet by logging onto your computer or turning to your smartphone. But you have to ask yourself, where does the Internet or those news feeds get their information. The answer is from the newspapers, like the McKenzie County Farmer. If you’ve never noticed, the web and thousands of sites are populated by millions of stories and photos produced by your community newspapers. If newspapers, and their dedicated journalists ceased to exist, the vast majority of that news content would cease to exist.
The McKenzie County Farmer, like all other newspapers, embraces the new technologies that exist. We have our own Internet page, www.watfordcitynd.com, that carries snippets of our main news and sports stories. And we also have our own Facebook page that again gives people across the country and the world, a chance to see what is happening in our “little corner of the world.” But to really understand and appreciate what is happening in Watford City and McKenzie County, there is no better “way to know” than to turn to the pages of the Farmer.
There is no other media source that cares more about what is happening in our county than we do. That’s why we are at city, county and school meetings. That’s why we are at our school’s sporting events. That is why we do feature stories on interesting people and businesses in our communities. And that is why we devote so much of our time and energy to making our newspaper relevant to you, our readers.
Yes, doing so is our job. But it is also our passion. We believe that we owe it to our readers and our community to be the very best that we can be. We’re proud of what we do. And we hope that you are too.

WATFORD CITY WEATHER