newspaper closures

We just received word that Southwest Media will be closing six small town newspapers in the southwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. They were small papers, but they were a connection for the people of the community. I watched this same thing happen along the Mississippi River when RiverTown Multimedia reduced their small newspapers from nine to two over a period of less than two years. This reflects a larger movement across the country to close or reduce publications. As a newspaper reader my entire adult life, I am saddened to watch this trend play out, and feel a void where those papers used to exist. I always felt local newspapers gave a community a common thread, a shared experience of that the town was about and how it was developing. Without those venues, something important is missing.