Within the past couple of years, news outlets have been given a bad rap. We’ve been lumped into this big, bad category of “The Media.” Together, “The Media” has become a hated term throughout the country.
We, at The Covington News, may receive media credentials, media releases and other media resources, but we do not consider ourselves part of “The Media.” We are your community newspaper.
As your community newspaper, we strive to tell your story. We’ve been telling your story since 1865, as a matter of fact.
How does that make us different? For starters, we’re your neighbors. It is easy for other news agencies to come to town, blow the lid off a big story and leave. That’s the thing, we can’t leave. Our office is in the heart of downtown Covington, we see you at the grocery store, out to dinner, we live here and we feel the repercussions, just as you do.
According to a 2016 study by Gallop, a company that provides analytics and advice to help organizations, only 32 percent of Americans said they had a “Great deal/Fair amount” of trust in mass media – such as newspapers, TV and radio. That’s down from 40 percent in 2015.
Gallup began asking that question in 1972 and has been doing it on a yearly basis since 1997. According to its data, Americans’ trust and confidence hit its highest point at 72 percent in 1976 – which is around the time of the Watergate scandal. Since then, American’s trust in the media has consistently been below a majority since 2007.
We hope that is not the case for our readers. Our readers are our lifeblood. We could not do it without you and we would not want to.
The staff of The News vows to do whatever it can to make sure it is providing you with factual information that is relevant to your life. As members of this community we promise to play a role in the growth and successes in the community. With that being said, we also promise to hold people responsible for their actions.
We’ve said it before and we will say it again, it is not our job to tell you what to think, it is our job to tell you what to think about. We just want to be a relevant part of the conversation.
Online, you will find that we update The News website (www.covnews.com) multiple times a day as a way to make sure you are constantly in the know. We also produce this weekly print publication to not only provide a hardcopy history for our community, but also provide our readers with more in-depth coverage of local issues.
Is there something we are missing? Let us know. Did we get something wrong? Let us correct it. We also want to be held accountable and we cannot do it without you.
We, as a media agency, hope you will consider us part of your community and thank you for continuously allowing us in your home each week. It is an honor that we do not take lightly.
