to miss old-style local newspapers?

[PlasticPotPlant]

I've been passing a pleasant morning with a cup of tea doing some family tree research and fell into an old newspaper archive.

I ended up doing some browsing of the local newspaper from my youth (1980s) and felt all nostalgic for the enthusiastic sharing of community events that now pass by unmarked - the hospital fete with photos of children beaming by the cake stall, the photos of the play put on by the summer holiday club with jolly comments about the talents of the participants, the article about a pub quiz fund-raiser, complete the details of the members of the winning team (including seemingly random facts, such as the captain worked in the local factory and what another member of the winning team had worn)

Each addition also had photos of couples who had got married and short write-ups including who was bridesmaids, where they'd met, where they were going on honeymoon etc, and another section on funerals that listed all the mourners.

It just felt so wholesome and unifying - how great for the whole community to be able to share in the little triumphs and the events going on around them.

I even found a photo of 4 year old me as a cat in a fancy dress competition (I didn't win but did fall under the 'special mention' section apparently)

So - AIBU to miss old-style local newspapers rather than appreciating the ability for everyone to now share what is important to them on local facebook pages etc?

we still have the local gazette
at one stage, 20 years ago, my dc were in the gazette every week!

dont you have a local gazette?

We have a very popular local paper with local fete pictures 😄

I buy my local paper every week and I love it 😄

I am so jealous of you! Where I am now (which is not where I grew up) the local paper is gone and replaced with a generic website that although is supposed to be the local news is actually shared accross a region and seems to be more adverts masquarading as news articles rather than actual news, and certainly no covering of fetes.

Maybe I need to consider moving to get back my local newspaper fix

We have a bimonthly magazine with community news (and a lot of adverts). We have a village fete in the summer (unfortunately the handwriting competition has just this year been removed) and next week its the Parish Council elections.

Its like a delightful little time warp at times.

My husband lives 400 miles away from the small town he grew up
in. He still lad the local paper a "Herald" delivered to our house every week. The local news agent who he used to deliver for posts it out every Tuesday night. Sweet really.

YANBU and not just for nostalgia.

When so many local papers closed or were down-graded to online events listings we didn’t only lose the pleasant community news.

We also lost local scrutiny and accountability for public bodies such as councils, courts, schools and hospitals.

I think there is a very good chance that the horrible, needless tragedy at Grenfell would not have happened if a properly run local newspaper had been around to hold the council to account.

My PILs used to send DH a copy of his home town local paper each week when he was in Afghanistan. Quite a few people read it apparently. (Some from his home town, then other people because it was comforting...)

I try not to be nostalgic (for the 80s!) but there are things I think are a loss. My parents had the local newspaper delivered every single evening (apart from Sunday of course) and the evening news was a big deal that they both stopped to watch. How lovely to not have constant 'news', let alone 'celebrity news'.

Some places seem to have retained a local/regional daily paper, do you not have one OP?

What's the company that's apparently taken over all of the online versions of local newspapers? It's an absolute disgrace, and as PP said, we've lost all of the local investigative journalism holding elected officials and large businesses to account.