When you flip the power switch at home, you expect the lights to work.  Unless, of course, you insist on not paying the electric bill.

When you go to the sink, you expect to have water.  Unless, of course, you continue not to pay the water utility.

Most Americans know the consequences when we do not pay for what we need.  We lose it.

America is seeing the loss of local news sources at an alarming rate.   According to a story published late last year in the New York Times, the United States has seen 1 in 5 newspapers cease publication over the past 15 years.  The number of local journalists has been cut in half during that same period.

There is no indication this is improving.  Even at large newspapers the number of journalists continues to dwindle.

So, what can be done about this?  We need to realize that good journalism, be it from a newspaper, online outlet or another platform, needs subscribers.  By that, I mean paid subscriptions.

Just as your power and water can be turned off if you don’t pay for it, journalism will go away if you are not willing to pay for a subscription.  The lack of local, independent journalism can drag down any community.

I had a local Fishers elected official admit something to me privately a couple of years ago.  While prefacing the remark that nothing nefarious should be implied, this person admitted elected bodies behave much differently when there is no independent journalist in the meeting room.

Think carefully about that for a moment.

The best way to support journalism is to subscribe to your local news organizations.  The Indianapolis Star, the Indianapolis Business Journal and the Hamilton County Reporter are three examples that come to mind, but there are many more.

My message to you is to subscribe to any and all news sources in your local area.  That is the only means to guarantee there will be a journalist in that meeting room as elected officials deliberate.

I have not been paid as a journalist for a very long time, so there is no dog in this hunt for me.  But our communities need this, and I love my community of Fishers.

Don’t let the lights go out in the local journalistic enterprises left in our central Indiana area.  Subscribe!