When the River Reporter celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, we had the perfect chance to look back on our history and the impact we’ve made on the Upper Delaware River Valley.

Our first issue—December 3, 1975—had us looking at the possibility of a new school or a merger that would affect Narrowsburg’s students. That merger ultimately came to pass, and we had our eye on it the way we had our eye on all the most impactful stories of the years to come, from the pollution and clean-up of Narrowsburg’s Cortese Landfill to the coming of the National Park Service, from battles over the prohibition of fracking to the fight to preserve the Skinners Falls Bridge.

We’ve provided 50 years of intelligent, independent coverage of the Upper Delaware, reporting that’s encouraged thoughtful community conversations and told the truth to those who needed to hear it. Now, we’re looking ahead to our next 50 years of work—and we’ll need your help.

Today, on Thursday, April 9, newsrooms across the country are marking Local News Day. It’s a celebration of the thousands of people and institutions that work to keep their local communities informed about the news, events and cultural happenings that matter, that knit a loose collection of people and buildings into something more, into something undefined, into a community. 

It’s becoming easier than ever to lose track of the local, with a national media news cycle that sucks up attention and inspires outrage. At the same time, focusing on what’s happening in your community and putting in the work to build fellowship is more important than ever. Without strong civic engagement, starting at the local, grassroots level, misinformation runs rampant, fueled by social media’s echo chambers; neighbors struggle to talk to neighbors, having lost the common ground that once provided a place to talk and to resolve their differences; politicians and corporate interests take advantage of a weakened Fourth Estate to benefit themselves at the public’s expense.

We’re looking to grow the River Reporter to meet the needs of the moment, to provide you with the coverage you’ve come to depend on while ensuring we’ll see our 100th anniversary, giving us another 50 years of history of which to be proud. We’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks about the ways we’re trying to make the River Reporter more of a community resource, and about the ways in which we’ll need your help to ensure that we can keep providing you with the local news coverage you deserve.

In the meantime, we could use your help increasing the numbers of people who read the River Reporter. Are you willing to “talk us up”? Let your family, friends and neighbors know what a remarkable resource the paper is in the region? 

Are you willing to testify, in one sense, to your own delight in receiving the paper or checking us out online every week?

Are you willing to join the growing number of people who are participating in the News Ambassador program and attending one town or township meeting a month? All of the above? Some of the above?

If nothing else, we want to thank you for reading the River Reporter, and for the trust you’ve invested in us to be your local source of news, information and culture. The writing within these pages means nothing without people willing to read it, to take it to heart and to put it into action, to keep your community engaged and informed. 

We look forward to another 50 years with your support.