Across the country, communities are changing the way they access local news. Many still read a printed newspaper like this one, others make it a habit to check in regularly with their hometown newspaper’s website or app, also like this one offers, and some wait to see what is being posted and shared on their favorite social media platforms. How ever they receive it, there is no doubt local news is important to the vast majority of Americans — approximately 80% of them, according to the Newspaper Association Managers Inc.

During this National Newspaper Week, NAM’s theme is “In print. Online. For You. Newspapers your way.”

Here in this Mahoning Valley publication, we’ve been providing readers those access points and more (an e-edition of the newspaper, for example) for many years. We know how important it is to deliver to our readers the news they will not find anywhere else, in a way that works best for them.

Sure, without our newspaper, readers will still be able to find national news and sports on a variety of platforms. But they would miss coverage of school, city, county and maybe even state government moves that affect them personally. They would miss coverage of their children’s and grandchildren’s school sporting events or performances. They would miss the perspective of columnists and contributing readers. And, they would miss vital public records and the required publication of government notices that are so much a part of the way we shine a light on that which some in the public eye would like to hide.

However it is accessed, readers can be confident the news we publish meets higher standards than will be found at any other news source for being as unbiased as possible, fair, thorough and accurate. After all, it doesn’t matter how easy we are to read if those in the community do not believe they can trust us. We know we are nothing if we are not living up to that trust.

On paper or digitally, we are committed to doing so, for you.