As The Beachcomber says good-bye to its latest editor — spoiler alert: too late, you should have read the editorial first — and those of us left behind forge ahead with the business of reporting on all things Vashon, it seems like an opportune time to celebrate the survival of the small-town newspaper.

In a time when big media is failing on all fronts — print losing the battle to digital, quality and accuracy losing the battle to speed, and ethics losing the battle to politics and money — local papers march on.

Curious, since “newspaper reporter” is consistently battling with “lumberjack” for top honors as the worst job in the country, according to Career Cast’s annual rankings based on workplace environment, salary and career outlook. Yet here we are, in a year where Iowa’s Storm Lake Times, a paper with a circulation equivalent to The Beachcomber’s at just over 3,000, was awarded a Pulitzer for taking on corporate agriculture, while The New York Times is busy posting features that look to normalize white supremacists (New York Times, Nov. 25, 2017, “A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland”).

Maybe it’s not so curious after all.

Now I’m not suggesting that is all the NYT or other big papers are printing; of course there is some great work there too. But when a handful of exceedingly wealthy people control the majority of the media, as is the case in this country (Forbes, June 1, 2016, “These 15 Billionaires Own America’s News Media”), you run into issues with politics and editorial freedom/control muddying the waters of an industry that is supposed to keep us not just informed, but accountable. Combined with the rise of digital and social media changing revenue streams and feeding readers’ demand for easy, instant information, it’s not hard to see why the industry has devolved over the past 15 years. Advertisers and subscribers have jumped ship, leading to the demise of many print publications, like the Post Intelligencer, or the “re-organization” of others, like the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger.

But small, locally-focused papers persist, and, as noted earlier, even shine in the face of a somewhat hostile landscape. After all, where else are you going to find the news that is specific to your neighborhood? The Seattle Times is not going to write about Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s financial troubles, what the school district is up to or the full story of Phoebe and Tillie’s not-so-excellent adventure. I mean, why that didn’t win a Pulitzer is beyond us, but, small town vs. big agriculture is good too, I guess.

All joking aside, we’re a small but dedicated team here, as are most local papers. Some complain that we are owned by an off-island entity, and that is correct as of 1995. But The Beachcomber’s staff is entirely made up of islanders — we live next door, you run into us at the grocery store and at island events. And even though we have had our share of “because the organization that owns us says so” changes over the years and a semi-regular turnover of editors and staff, we go on. As we move forward with someone new at the helm — at the moment we don’t know who that will be — we will continue to bring you the news you can’t get anywhere else and keep it real in the process because we care about this community and what we do, “worst job” or not.

— Sarah Low is a reporter for The Beachcomber.