Recently Bethlehem Press editor George Taylor was asked to speak about community journalism at the National Federation of Press Women’s conference in Bethlehem.

Taylor asked readers to share their thoughts on the importance of local news and on the Bethlehem Press.

Here are a few of the responses he got and used in his presentation.

Local news not only helps voters, but it stimulates some of them to come to council meetings, stimulates some of those to speak, and may even stimulate one or two to run for office, as happened quite recently in Bethlehem.

Bill Scheirer

I forgot I lived in a small town. I forgot I liked living in a small town. I forgot my small town was thriving. Till I subscribed to the BP. I get no real Bethlehem local news from the Allentown Morning Call. I somehow thought of my “town” as the chaotic megaverse of cable news where my tv is mainly stationed. And most often these days it is news from a world I don’t recognize and don’t want to live in. I live on a street where people rent, don’t sit on their porches, don’t know each other’s names. The BP reminds me -- with the help of lots of color photos! -- that I have neighbors who lead regular lives of family, work, church, school, sports. I need to feel that normality. I forgot my small town is pulsing with old-fashioned normality. The BP reminds me.

Edward J. Gallagher

Dear George,

Here at a few of my thoughts on the importance of local papers and especially the Bethlehem Press.

National papers are important, but we still need local papers to inform us about our communities which is where we live our lives and can be most directly involved in shaping our community.

Local papers are vital to making informed decisions for ourselves and our families - where to live, work, go to school, who to vote for, and a whole lot more. It is where we learn what our local government is doing and planning, our school board’s issues and actions, local community causes, needs and actions by nonprofits and more. In other words, some of our most important decisions rely on the kind of information we get from our local papers. They are the glue that binds individuals to their communities.

Being an informed citizen is essential to being a good citizen. We understand the importance of a free press and the role of the fourth estate holding government accountable to the people. Democracy doesn’t enforce itself; it requires vigilance and an engaged public. Local papers are the nexus of that engagement because our communities are where our feet are on the ground.

I believe in the importance of newspapers and have always made keeping up with the news part of my daily habit. My news comes from a number of sources - NPR, MSNBC, and I subscribe to both the Morning Call and the Bethlehem Press as well as the digital NYT. Reading the NYT with coffee the first thing in the morning is one of my great pleasures, but my civic engagement is here in Bethlehem, where I live. The Morning Call and Bethlehem Press help keep me informed about my community and make it possible to be actively involved.

I continue to subscribe to the Bethlehem Press because it is the paper of my community and I believe in supporting my local paper. I have also come to view the Morning Call as more corporately driven since it was bought by the Tribune - now called (strangely!) Tronc. It has been a disappointment, especially since laying off a lot of good journalists a few years ago. I actually canceled my subscription to the Call in protest (that’s when I started subscribing to the Press). I resubscribed after a couple of years, feeling that I needed to read a daily local paper, but I don’t feel as warmly about it as I used to.

That leads me to mention one of my great concerns about my local papers, which is that the financial pressures print newspapers are facing will result in withholding news that would offend important interests or that concerns about access will lead to less critical reporting about local government. Reporting on local government is one of the most important things a local newspaper can do.

I suspect that my support for newspapers derives from those long ago civics lessons of my high school years that emphasized what it means to be a good citizen. To me, newspapers are vital to an informed public, civic engagement and vital to the maintenance of democracy.

Keep up the good work!

Barbara Diamond