A light in dark places

Communities that have independent newspapers are better places to live. Such publications play a key role in keeping citizens informed, government accountable, and arts and culture alive and thriving.

As you’ll read in this week’s special cover story (beginning on page 14), Chico and its surrounding communities have benefited from the good and thoughtful reporting found in these pages over the past 40 years.

Just look at the early days of the CN&R: Support for the Greenline, opposition to a proposed coal plant, Sen. Jim Nielsen’s political corruption—these are a few of the many important issues this newspaper has covered that have helped affect change. Some of them were reported during the paper’s heyday of the 1980s and early ’90s, when it boasted more pages and advertising, along with a more robust staff.

Today, despite a contracted stable of editors and writers, this leaner newspaper continues the tradition of being a community watchdog. Over the last decade, the CN&R has kept readers informed about a long list of issues: the housing crisis, oil trains traversing the Feather River railways next to the state’s largest water conveyance system, unsustainable local government employee wages and benefits that have led to the gutting of basic public services.

Meanwhile, we’ve published powerful and poignant stories about our neighbors—pieces we took on to seek empathy for those suffering and ultimately better the human condition through understanding and, ultimately, action (search our archives for our exhaustive reporting on local homelessness, for example).

Forty years ago, the CN&R became a beacon for change in a community lacking alternative voices. We’re as committed now as ever to being a light in dark places. Thank you for your support over the last four decades and we hope you’ll head to our racks each Thursday to help us continue our work.