Mitch Sneed at Large

From the time I first saw my name on top of a story in the Clayton News Daily in Jonesboro, Ga. I knew that journalism was for me.
I loved sports, but knew I wasn’t good enough at any of those to make a living playing. So I found the next best thing.
Being a sports writer I was able to be around sports and pay the bills too.
I guess I’ve moved up in the publishing world and left sports behind, but there is still nothing that replaces the thrill of chasing a big story.
That’s why these times are so tough right now for us ink-in-the-veins newspaper guys.
There’s no question newspapers are going through some challenging times.
The Internet has cut into the amount of money being spent on classified ads that were once newspaper staples. High fuel prices and the rising cost of newsprint make it more expensive to operate and print each day.
The real estate market is in decline and that has implications on everything we do.
More people are turning to the Internet, television, radio and other electronic delivery means for news.
Each day we hear about cuts at newspapers across the country and even in our own buildings.
I’ve heard it all and so have you. I’m staying away from sharp objects these days too.
But instead of being the purveyor of gloom and doom, now is the time when we should look at all the things that we do well and concentrate on the very things that lured us to this business in the first place.
I tell people all the time that if they want to know about every incident that happens in Iraq, they need to look somewhere else. But if they want to know what is happening in Culpeper, they have to read the Culpeper Star-Exponent.
We have to remember that there are things that we do that no one can do as well.
We take a daily snapshot of our community through the work of editors, reporters and photographers, package it with ads that help area businesses and then use a crew of skilled craftsmen to print a beautiful newspaper. It is then delivered to our readers’ doorsteps while they sleep. That’s something special.
Newspapers publish stories and photos about the accomplishments of kids. Those stories and photos hang on the refrigerator and fill scrapbooks, marking the milestones in the lives of our community.
We tell people what the weather will be so they dress right each day. We tell them who passed away, how out tax dollars are spent and what the score of the high school ball game was last night.
We are read on break, in the bathroom and on the bus. We are educational, informative and relevant.
We don’t turn the same nut and bolt on an assembly line every day. We are one of the only businesses that make a brand new product every day.
We are a product that people invite into their homes every day. We share breakfast with them and we are enjoyed with their coffee.
We inform people, we make them laugh, we make them cry and we help them pass time.
We make them angry sometimes and sometimes we make them proud.
But most of all newspapers make people think and help make the communities we serve a better place.
Not bad for .50 cents a day I’d say.
The reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. We just have to remember our mission and rededicate ourselves to making our readers’ lives better. If we do that, we’ll be just fine.