After 40+ years, Advance News alive and healthy Some newspapers, may they:

SERVING HIDALGO COUNTY

Instead of a news story, please consider this an op/ed. Not usually done on a front page, but when has The Advance ever been your typical newspaper? The Advance: never boring. Plus, I’m taking a week off of news writing so I can re-charge my batteries, which are depleted of energy. That’s why inside this week’s edition, you’ll find mainly press releases, which is what you find in free shoppers. Press releases are fine and dandy, but to stay in business as a real newspaper and attract subscribers, you have to report on real news. In other words, the sort of news that makes at least someone uncomfortable. Preferably more than one. It harkens back to the old saying of what the job of a real newspaper is supposed to be: to afflict the uncomfortable; and to comfort the afflicted.

In recent years, especially since the Great Recession of 2008, both daily newspapers and weekly newspapers across the country have closed their doors. The dailies have been hit the hardest. In fact, there is a website devoted to the demise of newspapers: “Newspaper Death Watch.” For a full list of dead newspapers, go to Wikipedia, and type in: “List of Defunct U.S. Newspapers.” That list, however, goes back to the days of when Mark Twain was a newspaper reporter working out of California, so keep that in mind.

Read the entire story on the e-Edition of our newspaper. http://www.etypeservices.com/Advance%20News%20JournalID455/