The
Hometown Newspaper
Antelope Valley Press
May 23, 1935
By H.L. Loft, publisher
The publisher is in a sense a quasi-public institution in
his community. As someone has said, the local newspaper meets you as you are ushered into
this vale of tears; it tells of your avoirdupois and curly locks. It follows you through
the trials and vicissitudes of measles, mumps and the whooping cough.
Your school problems are its
problems. It sheds tears (crocodile, perhaps) when you weep and smiles with you in your
joy; it goes with you along life's journey; your marriage is a matter of concern to the
local newspaper.
Your political ambitions are its
special interest, as some of you have learned to your sorrow. Your life, hopes and joys,
your fears and worries are an open book to the publisher of the small town newspaper. It
is for him to select for the public's edification such pages from your life's record as
will satisfy the curious craving of his readers and at the same time do as little violence
to your sense of privacy and desire for publicity as possible.
Though your troubles are
"little ones," the press must make due mention of them. As you depart this life,
the local paper draws a pall around your cadaverous past and opens the gates of St. Peter
that your friends may see you enter.
From the cradle to the grave, the
local paper is ever with you. |
