It's National Newspaper Week, so let's step back and take a look at what newspapers mean to communities across the state.

I'm using the present tense "mean," not the past tense "meant." I do this because newspapers in South Carolina remain the dominant media in their communities, with readership in most areas holding steady, or growing slightly. Each week, more than 3 million people read Palmetto State newspapers.

Note that newspapers are the key to making our government "of, by and for the people." When was the last time you sat through a county council or school board meeting? Maybe never. Reporters for newspapers across our state do this on a regular basis and give you reports on what your elected representatives are doing. Without newspapers, you likely wouldn't know council was getting ready to raise taxes, build a new fire station or ban smoking in local restaurants.

Newspapers have the important role as government watchdog and they go beyond meeting coverage to uncover problems and make government better. Recent examples include newspaper stories revealing unreported leaking nuclear waste, corruption in a coastal development corporation, secret purchase of land by a school board, bad cops being rehired in other communities and chronic abuse at a sheltered workshop.

Schools are really the molds that form communities, and no medium covers schools like your newspaper. Be it lunch menus, sports stories, booster club news or the dean's lists, newspapers provide coverage that no other media typically do. And in communities across our state, fall Friday nights mean high school football. Local newspapers are there, providing readers with scores, stories and photos.

Newspapers bring local buyers and sellers together through their advertising columns. A survey done by the S.C. Press Association in 2005 showed that 60 percent of South Carolina adults turn to newspapers for information on where to shop.

People news is still important in your newspaper. Weddings, engagements, births and deaths. All part of life in your community and all part of your local newspaper. These are the articles you clip out and send to relatives, or put in the family Bible.

Newspaper Public Notices, or "legal advertising," give citizens information about zoning proposals, tax issues, bond referendums and many other legal issues that impact their lives.

Through their editorial pages, local newspapers challenge, praise and provide food for thought on local issues. Through letters to the editor, newspapers give citizens the ability to speak out and be heard on issues and events that impact community.

Newspapers build a sense of community. Through coverage of local events, local life, business news and politics, newspapers give communities focus. One definition of a newspaper is "a community talking to itself."

Newspaper reporters, photographers and editors across our state have a demanding job with long hours and lots of pressure. It's National Newspaper Week, but it is really a week to honor the newspaper staffers in all departments who work to connect you to your community.

Bill Rogers is executive director of the S.C. Press Association, the trade group for the state's more than 100 newspapers.

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