Recently I read an article that described how bloggers were "obsessively" covering small town life across the country. 

For those of you who don't know what bloggers are - they are people who routinely post their opinions on any number of subjects on the Internet. In recent years, bloggers have also branched out and started reporting news events. 

Oddly enough, what the article described is how local papers, such as The Advocate & Democrat, have covered small town life for centuries. We go to school programs and festivals, city and county meetings, fires and wrecks. We publish pictures of giant watermelons and pumpkins, homecoming queens, and grandma's 100th birthday. 

That is the job of a small town paper - to cover your life from the time your birth announcement is published to the day we print your obituary, and all the good (and bad) times in between.

Our job is to cover Monroe County like no one else will. The Knoxville newspaper and television stations may send a reporter down here for an occasional story, but they will not be here for the everyday events or all the once-in-a-lifetime events. 

Over the years, large papers have tried to branch out to surrounding counties and they have filled many of their pages with news from wire services. But, with news being available 24 hours a day, large papers around the country are now discovering they must return to their roots. They must cover their communities and provide the news people cannot get from other sources. In other words, they must do what we have always done.

And that is why small town papers are weathering this economic storm better than our big brothers and sisters. A recent study conducted by the National Newspaper Association, found that 86 million people read community newspapers every week. (A community newspaper was defined as having circulation less than 15,000). Community newspaper readers spend about 40 minutes with their paper. That's a lot more than that 30-second segment on a TV or radio broadcast.

And, for those people who do read news online, 63 percent of those readers went to their local newspaper's Web site for information. The newspaper continues to be the most credible source of local information, whether it's printed on paper or posted on a newspaper's Web site.

And for our advertisers, 69 percent of those surveyed said advertising inserts somewhat or strongly help them make purchasing decisions and 79 percent said they prefer to look at newspaper ads rather than watch ads on television. And, 47 percent say that some days they look at the paper more for the ads than the news.

There's no denying the economy has been tough on newspapers of all sizes, but most of those reports you hear about papers going bankrupt or closing, are about large papers. The local paper is a vital part of a community and we will continue to provide the information you need.