Growing up in the business, I became aware of the ins-and-outs of newspapers at a rather tender age.
For a reason I still don't fully understand, the paper business fascinated me from the day I first walked into the newsroom.
And it does so to this day.
Friends and family don't particularly care to travel with me because I insist on stopping at a newspaper rack in any town we pass through.
So I never leave home without an ample supply of quarters in the car's console.
Visiting towns like Hattiesburg was always a bit of treat for a nerdy news junkie like me.
Convenience stores in cities of this size reliably had a generous number of newspaper racks out front — from the local publications to ones from far and wide.
There's still something very appealing to me in picking up a healthy newspaper and rifling through its pages.
If you're reading this column in print, you probably know that sense of satisfaction I'm talking about.
It’s an appreciation I’ve cultivated through the decades.
In nearly every community where I have lived, I've worked for the local paper.
So there's always been a stack of newspapers nearby to keep me interested in my profession and, more importantly, the community around me.
That curiosity holds true for many adults, I think — even if they’re not newspapers addicts like me.
In fact, a Pulse Research study in 2016 found that 8-in-10 Mississippians interact with their local newspaper either in print or online every day.
Frankly, that runs counter to much of what you hear about the modern newspaper business.
We're all subjected to a lot of hand-wringing and teeth gnashing about the fate of the printed word.
Technology and the internet — and tariffs on newsprint, of all things — have been pitted against the printing press.
And we all by now know of the dire predictions of grim fate in store for newspapers and other legacy media in the age of tablets and smartphones.
But as intelligent as Alexa and Siri are, they would not know very much if it wasn't for your newspaper. In fact, an inordinate amount of the “real” news content that populates the internet originates at newsroom desks just like the ones at The PineBelt NEWS.vAnd in spite of the printed newspaper's simplicity — or, perhaps, because of it — the industry remains a true medium for the masses.
Newspapers persevere as the source of first choice for local news and advertising information in counties like Forrest and Lamar and all others across Mississippi.
Just consider the contents: Youth sports scores and photos from Friday night’s games, weddings and engagements, local government coverage, public notices, obituaries, events, entertainment calendars, recipes, church happenings, and much more.
It's all part of what makes your newspaper vital and unique to your community.
Technology and the digitization of society means more information will continue to migrate to our hard drives and into the cloud.
But the newspaper still represents the ultimate portable document format.
And I can't fathom day when most of us won't still turn to the local paper — in whatever form its available — for the latest information about what's happening around us.
So congratulations to the men and women of The PineBelt NEWS on the first edition of this combined newspaper, which carries on the award-winning journalism of The Petal News, The Lamar Times, and The Hattiesburg Post — all three highly decorated newspapers that have capably served the readers of the Pine Belt for years.
For all the time I've worked in this business — 30 years in September, thank you very much — I have never been part of an "inaugural edition."
Thanks to an invitation from publisher David Gustafson, I get my chance with this premiere edition of The PineBelt NEWS.
It’s quite an honor.
I'll keep those quarters in the console to make sure I pick up a copy each time I visit the Hub City.
Layne Bruce is executive director of the Mississippi Press Association. His email address is lbruce@mspress.org
