National Newspaper Week began Sunday and runs through Saturday.

Occasionally throughout the week, The News will carry columns from editors and other newspaper officials from around the country — and from News staffers — talking about the importance of newspapers in everyday life. You’ll hear about the important stories uncovered, the wrongs righted, the government officials held to account, and the practical information provided especially by local newspapers like your Alpena News.

Each day in the print edition, you’ll see an editorial cartoon highlighting the important role newspapers play in democracy.

To that conversation we add that newspapers are a powerfully effective place for local businesses to advertise their local products to local customers. They offer a place for local athletes, high-performing students, service organizations, and notable seniors to be feted. And they offer pages like this one, where the issues of the day can be debated civilly.

And, perhaps most importantly, local newspapers record local history as it happens, storing it in hardbound editions to be examined decades and centuries from now but historians professional and amateur who want to know what Northeast Michigan was like in 2020. No one else does that.

Newspaper Week is not a time for organizations like The News to pat themselves on the back.

It’s a time for you, dear reader, to celebrate the services your newspaper offers you and your community day in and day out.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)