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Opinion: Local journalism makes a world of difference [1]
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Date: 2025-04-27
By Bill Clark
People occasionally ask why El Paso Matters matters to me, why I am a contributor and serve on its board. For me, it’s personal. And my story might shed some light on why your support is important not just to El Paso Matters, but also to our borderland community.
Bill Clark
I grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, one of the largest cities in the state at that time, but small compared to El Paso. Throughout Jackson and Madison County, people at all socioeconomic levels had a strong sense of community and civic pride. As in Texas, community revolved largely around sports and religion.
But folks took an active interest in the goings-on in city and county government and institutions and organizations that were the foundation of our community. People insisted on knowing what was happening in our community. And they knew and trusted that they could rely on our local daily newspaper, The Jackson Sun, to keep them informed with facts.
My working-class parents were not highly educated and generally not big readers, and money was tight, but they always found money for The Sun. It was a necessity, not a luxury. My parents believed it was essential to be aware and informed about what was going on in our community, especially regarding matters related to local government, elections and schools, etc.
My mother paid close attention to election coverage because she volunteered as a poll worker on election days. Reading the local newspaper took priority over watching television. It was an important part of my parents’ day, every day, until they each died several years ago.
When I became a paperboy for The Sun, it was easy to learn my route – knowing at which houses to “throw” a paper – because almost every home on my route through working-class neighborhoods subscribed to the newspaper.
People read the local newspaper for more than “hard news.” There were local sports scores from Little League to college, obituaries (the first thing older folks looked at every day), lists of local arrests and hospital admissions, the “society page,” comics, recipes and grocery coupons, the crossword puzzle and more.
Today, you have social media for most of those things, but not for the substantive, in-depth stories that require a significant investment of time by professional journalists. Social media can entertain. It might even give you a headline or snippet of “news.” But it can never replace local reporting, which requires a deep level of research, questioning, thought, fact-checking, follow-up and clear editing.
Those are the things that require a local news organization with “boots on the ground” in your community.
Social media does not and cannot fill the void in accurate, trustworthy “hard news” left by the decimation (and in some communities, the disappearance) of local newspapers. That’s where El Paso Matters comes in. That’s the void Bob Moore stepped up to fill five years ago after a years-long erosion in coverage of important local news.
Bob has built a not-for-profit newsroom staffed with talented news reporters who are dedicated to the community. Unlike most local newspapers today, all of El Paso Matters’ work is done here, by people who live here. In essence, El Paso Matters is community owned.
Our world has changed. Our community has changed. But one thing hasn’t changed – the need for accurate, timely, in-depth reporting of local news. In fact, our increasingly complex, rapidly changing world makes substantive, local journalism more important than ever.
El Paso is fortunate. High-quality, in-depth coverage of local news, including reporting on how regional and national events affect our local community, is available for free to everyone, thanks to El Paso Matters. Think about that. It’s free. It’s at your fingertips at ElPasoMatters.org.
El Paso Matters also is available to former El Pasoans who are still interested in our community … people considering relocating to our borderland … executives and business owners contemplating locating a business in El Paso … legislators and policymakers in Austin and Washington, D.C. … anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in our borderland.
El Paso Matters is available to anyone, anytime, anywhere – for free.
During college and for a short time afterwards, I worked as a reporter and editor for The Sun. That experience gave me a greater understanding of and appreciation for all the work that goes into “delivering” local news.
A strong, competent newsroom is dependent on the commitment of dedicated reporters and editors for whom local journalism is an all-consuming mission, a higher calling, not simply a job. That describes El Paso Matters’ award-winning team of reporters and editors, whose work has been recognized and republished nationally and internationally.
Over time, I moved from journalism to the corporate world, but I have always carried with me a love of great reporting and a deep respect for the reporters and editors who work tirelessly to do this important work. It’s been heartbreaking to watch the downward spiral of local newspapers caused by a perfect storm of media consolidation, downsizing and asset stripping by private equity firms, shorter attention spans, and frankly less consumer interest in local news, substantive issues, and community engagement.
I grew up being taught – knowing – that community matters … local education matters … higher education matters … responsible local government and leadership matters … accountability matters … voting matters … people matter. And most importantly, people helping people matters.
Those aren’t simply news topics. Those are values. And El Paso Matters speaks to those values. El Paso Matters is a small group of dedicated journalists working hard to help people better understand the often complex issues affecting individuals, families, and our community as a whole.
As a nonprofit newsroom, El Paso Matters is about community – not profit.
El Paso’s leaders talk a lot about building a world-class community, one with great quality of life. A world-class community needs a world-class news organization to keep citizens informed about government, education, health care, elections, economic development, and other things that have a direct impact on total quality of life.
That’s why we need El Paso Matters, an award-winning news organization, which has received numerous awards including one last week from Investigative Reporters and Editors. And as individuals and other news organizations throughout the country look to El Paso Matters for information on immigration and other border-related news, El Paso Matters’ reporting often helps to portray El Paso positively and correct misconceptions about our community.
Since its inception more than five years ago, El Paso Matters has relied largely on the kindness of “strangers” for its funding. Bob and Editor Cindy Ramirez have built a world-class newsroom thanks to significant contributions from national foundations and other grant-making organizations that believe in the importance of local news.
Reliance on out-of-town organizations, however, is not a path to long-term sustainability. El Paso Matters needs the support of the people it serves first and best – the people of El Paso and our greater borderland community.
Now is a good time to help. El Paso Matters is in the midst of its annual Spring Campaign. I hope you’ll consider making a donation here to help reach the goal of raising $10,000 over two weeks.
If El Paso – our community, your community – matters to you as it does to me, El Paso Matters deserves your attention. It also deserves and needs local financial support – contributions small or large. Helping to keep high-quality local journalism and accountability reporting alive is one small way we can make a world of difference in our community.
Bill Clark owns Literarity Bookshop in West El Paso and serves on the El Paso Matters board of directors.
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[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2025/04/27/opinion-support-el-paso-matters-local-journalism/
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