In the world of community newspapers, there are three groups of people critical to the process of gathering the news and information that goes into the News-Democrat & Leader.

We are Logan County’s only newspaper, with a paid circulation of over 5,000 and growing. We are also the online news leader (www.newsdemocratleader.com) with daily updates, and an average of 23,000 visitors per month and 110,000 page views per month. Pretty impressive.

To provide you the information to fill all the pages and all the online space, takes a lot of work and effort on the part of three groups of people.

Most people recognize the efforts put forth by the newsroom staff – the editors and reporters who are in the grind day-in and day-out, attending meetings and events, chasing down sources and information, verifying quotes and a plethora of other duties that are sometimes overlooked. And in my view this includes some of the freelancers who help to fill out the pages with great information or photos.

The N-D&L is blessed with a great staff, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

The second group of people vital to the news process is you, the reader. Without your submissions of everything from anniversary announcements to school events to business happenings to church activities, the paper would be pretty bare. These are the “community” of community newspapers and this information is vital.

Let’s face it. Folks want to know who is getting married. They want to know who won the school spelling bee. They want to know what’s going on down at the Baptist Church. This is vital information and it adds to the local flavor of the paper.

And for that information, we need your submissions, so keep them coming! If you aren’t sure, just call anyone in the newsroom at (270) 726-8394 and they’ll help you get your submission into the paper.

The final group is our community columnists. Anyone who writes a weekly column knows that it is darned hard work. There are many things that go on in outlying communities that we simply don’t have the staff to cover. That’s where the four we currently have step in. Without them, it would be near-impossible to get news from their communities in the paper.

Right now, Hazel Fleming (Spa), Juanita Silvey (Dunmor), Dick Dickerson (Adairville) and Louise Henderson (Antioch) write for their respective communities. I had the opportunity to visit with them briefly Friday (and boy, can they cook!) and learned they really care about their communities and the paper.

But we need more. I encourage you to contact OJ in the newsroom (270) 726-8394 if you are interested in writing about your community if we do not already have a columnist. However, I caution you. It is hard work to write a community column every week – much harder than most people think.

Regardless of whether you write a community column or just send in occasional items of interest, you are an active part of our news gathering and reporting process, and I encourage you to keep ‘em coming!

— Clay Morgan is the publisher of the News-Democrat & Leader. You may call Clay at (615) 670-3658, or e-mail him at cmorgan@heartlandpblications.com.