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Journalism isn’t free

As you read the stories and columns in today’s Enterprise, we’d like to remind you that our service isn’t free.

You already know this if you’ve purchased a print copy, but if you’re reading this online, as many people do, it’s worth the reminder.

There’s a cost. From our time gathering the news, writing it, laying it out, editing it, printing it and distributing each issue, it takes a lot of time and money to produce the only daily newspaper published in the Adirondacks.

Times are tough for all newspapers, even for small ones such as the Enterprise. We’ve felt the economic pressures of the digital age, but it’s tough going for any small business in America, as many small business owners in the Tri-Lakes will tell you. Yet if you are dedicated to serving the community, as we have been since 1894, you’ll figure out ways to get through the rough patches.

There are more ways to get information in the digital age, yet the local newspaper is still an institution revered in the U.S. Print is far from dead. Radio and TV stations continue to cite newspaper stories on a daily basis. Social media is full of newspaper reporting, shared over and over. When you hear someone say, “Yes, I heard about that story,” whether it was “heard” on the internet, radio, TV or by word of mouth, many times the news story originated from newspaper reporting.

The Enterprise is still here, plugging along, reporting on the news that affects your lives locally, finding stories about the people in the region that make this a great place to live, helping businesses grow by providing advertising space, printing the accomplishments of local schoolchildren, and giving everyone a free platform to communicate with the public through a letter or essay.

If you like getting local news, views, outdoor and sports stories, please consider subscribing to the Enterprise.

Threats to the newspaper industry continue, and they’re not just coming from digital platforms. The latest threat is a tariff from the U.S. government, which is now charging a surcharge of up to a 32 percent on newsprint from Canadian mills. We’re not certain how it will affect the Enterprise and our sister newspaper, the Lake Placid News, but we are tightening our belts to decrease costs as much as possible without decreasing the amount of community news we give you every week. In fact, we’re giving you more, and much of it is award-winning journalism. Every year, the Enterprise and News are recognized statewide for our journalism efforts. The Enterprise is one of the state’s most consistently award-winning small papers.

Only a strong subscription base will help us continue serving the public for many years to come.

We know a lot of people read the Enterprise, but readers aren’t always customers. If you’ve ever said, “I don’t buy the paper because I read it online,” you may not know it, but that’s part of the problem. We don’t have an online subscription model right now.

If you rely on the Enterprise for your local news of the Adirondacks — a service nobody else provides as thoroughly as we do — please consider subscribing to one or both papers. If you find our feature stories and columns enjoyable, please consider supporting us so we can continue bringing you a good read each week.

Starting at $4.75/week.

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