Walter Cronkite once said, “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy; it is democracy.”

We are in the midst of National Newspaper Week, Oct. 5-11, which I see as the opportune time to have a little fireside chat.

Arthur Miller once said, “A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.”

Here in Cassville, I take that quote to heart but with one word changed — instead of nation, community.

Coming from a larger city and at one point working as a news clerk at a daily state-wide paper, moving to Cassville in 2014 was a change of pace. I’ll admit, I think it took me a while to get into a groove and begin to understand how Cassville and Barry County tick.

A finger on the pulse, as they say, is not a simple thing to achieve. It takes time, effort, strong reporting, an even stronger ability to make judgments, and a certain level of tenacity that pushes a publication to be everything the community demands from it.

Ultimately, the role of any newspaper is to be a mirror, reflecting as many aspects of the lives of its readers and coverage area residents as possible — the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the incredibly happy and the horribly sad.

From stories like the top one this week about a mother’s efforts to make sure her daughter, a victim of alleged sexual assault, has her voice heard, to the joy of parades and victories under Friday night lights, it’s a great endeavor and responsibility to carry the weight of the pen and the camera.

According to the Poynter Institute, a Muck Rack survey in 2024, just prior to the election, revealed that more than half of U.S. journalists considered quitting their jobs that year, citing exhaustion and burnout.

I halfway feel their pain. Long hours, travel, meetings, constant deadlines, backlash, unfair criticism and a whole host of other reasons are contributors to burnout — and believe me, I am no stranger to any of them (I don’t get called “fake news” as often these days, for one).

Yet, I’m prone to seeing the glass half full. We’ve nearly doubled our subscription numbers since my wife, Jordan, and I purchased the Democrat in 2023. We consistently have parents, grandparents or community members stop in to buy papers because they have a family member or friend depicted within its pages.

Our social media following has grown 33% in the last year alone, and our website traffic is following suit. Truthfully, the amount of compliments and encouragement we get far outweighs the fair and unfair criticism we receive, and I do expect to receive criticism, especially the fair kind.

I attend numerous journalism conventions over the course of the year, like the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors’ Convention in June and the Missouri Press Association Convention last month.

Jordan is the current president of the Ozark Press Association, and she has been working overtime planning that organization’s convention scheduled for next Thursday at the Emory Melton Inn and Conference Center at Roaring River State Park. We’ll be discussing topics like obtaining stringers, supplemental publications, investigative journalism, postal challenges and digital avenues, all sandwiching a Hatchery tour and country buffet lunch.

One topic that routinely comes up at those conventions is letters to the editor. In this issue, during National Newspaper Week, we have two in print. In the last four months, we’ve printed a total of 14 letters to the editor on various topics, from ones like Dales Stillings’ in print today thanking the city for street work to others like Kathy Casey’s in July and August critical of our commentary page.

In my nearly dozen years now as a community weekly newspaper editor, I’ve learned that along with being a mirror, the newspaper can and should be a forum. George Orwell said, “Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose.”

Combine Orwell’s and Miller’s quotes, and it looks like our commentary page (and Facebook comment sections for that matter) in recent months. Seeing the engagement in action is like burnout relief.

Margaret Thatcher said, “Journalism is a career which demands the highest professionalism. It demands responsibility as well, for the line between honest revelation and disingenuous sensationalism is sometimes perilously thin.”

Toeing that seriously thin line is a test of balance, fairness and ethics, and it’s rooted deeply in the dissemination of facts. We endeavor greatly to achieve all those aspects in our pages, at the local level, and I hope we do it justice.

Yet, in the back of my mind lives this Garrison Keillor quote: “A good newspaper is never nearly good enough, but a lousy newspaper is a joy forever.”

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He is a threetime ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or ktroutman@cassville-democrat. com.