Now lately Ive been thinking
What would the world do without the news
You wouldnt know when wars were started
Or when they ended, win or lose
Newspapers – Stan Ridgway
Stan Ridgway got his musical start as the lead vocalist for the group Wall of Voodoo in the late-1970s, putting forth a unique blend of new wave and rock. Their first mainstream notice came from a synthesizer-driven cover of Johnny Cashs Ring of Fire.
The group hit it big with Mexican Radio, reaching the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100, but Ridgway would leave the band the same year the single was released, seeking to pursue writing and singing music in the folk style that he preferred. Newspapers is from his second solo studio album. He never had a single top-100 song from any of his solo work, but Ridgways unique voice and storytelling writing style allowed him to work consistently into his 70s, especially through contributions to movie scores.
Newspapers is a mix of folk and 80s synth that gives an interesting backing sound to a pondering soliloquy from Ridgway that has no chorus, just a continuous thought from the beginning of the song to the end.
The question posed in the quoted portion of the song above is briefly answered by Ridgway later in the song, but his assertion is that it might be a better world to live in if we were not constantly being reminded of the bad of the world. That said, Ridgway also released this song when the internet was still very niche and CNN was the first and only news-only cable channel, not to be joined by competition for another half-decade.
In other words, even without newspapers, the exposure to the wrongs of the world in our modern day would still be right in front of us.
As we come into National Newspaper Week this coming week, that initial question still rings for pondering. What would our modern world be without newspapers?
Weve had a busy few months here at the Plainsman, first working just to survive, and now working to thrive under new ownership. There are plenty of things still being worked out, and thats going to be true for any business under new ownership.
One of the conversations I had recently in the community really nailed home exactly the importance of local journalism.
A community member mentioned that she really appreciated the photos for an event in the paper, and I explained that I had pulled those photos from the organizations Facebook page and had a conversation with a representative of the organization to put some context to the photos.
She was completely unaware that we hadnt covered that event in person, and I explained that particular day, we had someone covering four different things (with just three newsroom staff!), so that event just didnt fit on the schedule.
We, like many community papers, only exist because of our communities around us.
Today is another great example, as we will have staff covering events ranging from a chess tournament to the Harvest Festival to 281 Conference volleyball to the Spirit of Dakota Awards, along with multiple other local events that are planned for the day.
In Wednesdays paper, we had the monthly article highlighting historical events in Huron for the month of October. Jennifer Littlefield does a tremendous job with that monthly feature, and much of the information she pulls comes from our own Plainsman archives.
I find myself multiple times per week searching previous editions of the paper for a photograph or a story that we had in the paper. Walking in local churches, businesses, and homes in the community, I often find articles from the Plainsman pinned to a bulletin board or even framed.
The newspaper may not be the fastest way you can find breaking news information as it was 50 years ago, but we tell the story of you, our readers, our community members.
This years National Newspapers Week theme is Embracing local journalism for a better future, and weve seen recently in this community how quickly local journalism can be taken away.
Local newspapers inform the public, keep local political boards accountable to taxpayers, and highlight new and exciting happenings in the community.
However, the biggest thing that would be lost without newspapers is the story of you.
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