City needs a printed News-Press

I’m sure longtime readers of the Glendale News-Press have noticed the continual shrinking of this physical newspaper as well as the shrinkage in the amount of coverage of our community inside its pages. The physical offices of the News-Press in Glendale have been vacated and the editorial staff moved downtown.

For those who believe that the physical presence of this newspaper matters in our community, I would urge you to write the management of the Los Angeles Times, the parent company of the News-Press and its sister publications in neighboring communities.

This newspaper holds value in so many ways: the forum pages that give community members a voice in matters of local significance, the sports pages that honor the athletic achievements of our young people, the news pages that shed light on the important developments in local affairs.

One doesn’t often print out and save an article or photo from a computer printout from a Twitter feed posting from this newspaper. But look around this city, look into the meeting halls of churches, look along the hallways of local schools, look at the displays in city buildings. The history of our city is captured in the physical newspaper coverage of community — framed articles and photos, put behind glass, and displayed for posterity.

Yes, digital media is here to stay. But that doesn’t mean that the tangible newspaper so valuable to our community for over 100 years should slip away into the ephemeral miasma of digital media. When these words you read now are only on your phone or computer screen, we have all lost something of ourselves that we won’t get back.

Chris Davis
Glendale