-
Alt Text for Image
What is a community newspaper? A community newspaper is defined as a “news organization whose primary mission is to cover the important issues that affect a cohesive and well-defined geographic, ethnic or cultural community,” according to the Saving Community Journalism Project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
At the Burnet Bulletin and The Highlander, we see our mission as covering, first and foremost, the interests of the Highland Lakes region, specifically people in Burnet and Llano counties, at the local, county and regional level; thus, our focus is “hyper-local” when it comes to news and events coverage which appear within the pages of our newspaper.
We take seriously our position as the newspapers of record for Burnet County; for the cities of Burnet, Bertram, Marble Falls, Horseshoe Bay, Granite Shoals, Cottonwood Shores, Highland Haven, Meadowlakes, Double Horn; and for the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District and the Marble Falls Independent School District.
If this newspaper did not maintain its primary focus on local news, there would be a vacuum created within the community.
It would not be among sources that exist for people to get their federal or even state news. The large metropolitan dailies and TV and radio stations of this state report a 24-hour news cycle which focuses coverage on what happens outside the boundaries of our Highland Lakes area.
Instead, there would be a loss to our readers and the communities of “a credible, comprehensive source of news and information that affects the community” at the local level and there would be the loss to our advertisers of a newspaper that “connects them with local consumers of their goods and services.”
The hallmarks of a strong community newspaper are that it will “set the agenda for public debate,” “encourage economic growth in the area,” and “foster a sense of geographic identity and community.”
These are the ideals we strive for as your local newspaper and what we try to bring to you in the pages of our newspaper with each and every issue.
We will continue to focus our strongest efforts on the coverage of local news and chronicling the important events and occurrences of the Highland Lakes region.
That is our pledge to you and we thank you for allowing us to serve you in that capacity.
