Guest Column: Lack of paper, news sad for one town

By Ellen Kreth

news from all of those cities, leaving each city with very little coverage of their own. The week I visited,three news stories about Zionsville were in the current edition: one story on a pedestrian being hit by a car and a couple of news releases that had been typed up and reprinted. The edition was full of other press releases from other cities that had nothing to do with Zionsville.

What was missing was journalism in the form of stories written by local reporters who have their ears to the ground about what is really taking place in that community.

In the upcoming general election in Zionsville, five of the seven Town Council members will be new. Who will profile them, who will research their backgrounds, who will encourage citizens to vote, who will hold them accountable for spending and decision-making processes after they take office?

Voter turnout for the primary was 18 percent. Less than 20 percent of the population showed up to vote on races that will impact their lives and decisions made on their behalf with their tax dollars.

Watching people show up at the polls to cast their votes was exciting and encouraging. But the reality is that the community will never know that because no reporter was there to capture it.

This week, voters cast their ballots in a Huntsville School Board election. We profiled the candidates, challenged them on what issues they thought the district faced, and the election results were printed on the front page this week.

Reporting news to communities makes those areas a better place to live and keeps citizens engaged.

We’re proud of our work for this community and appreciate our advertisers, readers and subscribers for supporting our work and keeping The Record viable and award-winning.

Ellen Kreth is publisher of the Madison County Record and can be reached at ekreth@mcrecordonline.com. Originally published on May 11, 2023. Reprinted with permission.