Emergency-related stories to be available to all free on website

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The Banner Graphic takes its role as the area's news leader seriously.

This past winter the newspaper, in both print and digital formats, kept its readers updated with up-to-the-minute reports on road conditions, school closings and approaching storms.

The same will happen this spring and summer as storms with the potential for tornadoes make their way across the Wabash River and into our area.

And when there's an alert issued by police for a missing child or senior citizen, the newspaper will post that information quickly as well.

Such was the case last week at one of our sister papers in Greene County. The Linton Police Department shared information about a missing young girl, and the newspaper quickly put that up on its website to help with the search.

Helping keep the community safe is one of the newspaper's many roles.

I received an email a few hours after the Greene County newspaper posted the story about the missing young girl. It read:

"Dear Mr. Pruett,

"In light of the active search for the missing child in town, I feel compelled to write this. I realize that the newspaper has to make money, but I feel strongly that in emergency situations like the one occurring this afternoon, those stories should be free for the public to read, regardless of whether they have reached their maximum number of free stories for the month. How can the public help if they can't read the story?

"Please consider exempting those emergency stories (severe weather, missing children, school closings, etc.) from the paid subscription rule."

The email makes perfect sense.

The person is correct, the newspaper -- like all of the businesses in our community -- is in business to make money. But we're also in business to help people. Advertising and subscriptions (both print and digital) allow us to do both.

So starting immediately, the emergency stories the emailer referred to will be free for all to read on the newspaper's website. If you've reached your maximum number of free stories for the month, you will still be able to read the emergency stories.

Thank you for reading the Banner Graphic's print and digital products.

Chris Pruett is the publisher of the Banner Graphic. He can be reached by email at cpruett79@gmail.com.

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  • Common sense. I also find it distasteful to limit the ability to access an obituary considering you likely have already generated revenue by publishing it.

    -- Posted by jorge on Wed, Apr 16, 2014, at 5:56 AM
  • Thank you Banner!

    -- Posted by interested party on Wed, Apr 16, 2014, at 4:07 PM
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