On Jan. 18, the publisher of the Scarsdale Inquirer announced that the newspaper serving one of Westchester County’s most prominent suburbs had suspended publication after 123 years.

Gone was the newspaper’s coverage of government and schools, local businesses, local residents who have excelled and the athletic and academic exploits of students. A cost-effective way for businesses to reach their customers was no more.

The press release issued by the publisher said the award-winning paper was looking for “solutions to bring us back to sustainability.” But the paper has yet to reopen.

The Inquirer was joined by two other publications owned by its parent company that covered northern Westchester and what are known as the Rivertowns – Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Ardsley and Dobbs Ferry. They also shut their doors and have yet to resume publishing.

Despite the newspapers’ reputation for excellence, the closing of the three Westchester weeklies is hardly uncommon.

“More than 3,000 newspapers have been shuttered across the country since 2004 – and New York newspapers have been particularly hard hit,” according to Empire State Local News Coalition, a group of 150 newspapers that includes Blank Slate Media.

“In 2004, New York boasted 501 newspapers; today, it’s only 260,” the coalition wrote. “In 2022 alone, 30 newspapers closed across the state. A quarter of New York’s counties are now news deserts – down to their last newspaper. Orleans County recently became the first in the state to have none.”

Even those newspapers surviving have been forced to reduce staff – including reporters covering the news and editors overseeing their work.

Why does this matter?

Aren’t there other sources of information that will take their place? Isn’t this simply a matter of technological progress that has impacted countless industries throughout the history of this country?

The short answer is no.

Help wanted and other classified advertising that were once the most profitable section of daily and weekly newspapers have moved online. And, to a lesser extent, advertisers who customarily appear throughout the paper have migrated to a digital ecosystem controlled by Google through its dominance of online ad sales.

But nothing has replaced local newspapers for gathering and reporting local news in an even-handed manner. And the impact can be measured.

Studies show that when a community loses its source of local news, it experiences decreased voter turnout and civic engagement; higher municipal borrowing costs as bond ratings go down and taxes up; and diminished transparency among government and business officials, leading to increased waste, fraud, and abuse.

Horse-drawn carriages were replaced by automobiles. But what is replacing local newspapers? TikTok?

More than eight-in-10 U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.

Many of these people are using news websites, but about half (53%) say they get news from social media where Russian Bots and the Chinese lurk.

Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, found Americans who mainly get their news on social media are less likely to get the facts right about the coronavirus or politics and are more likely to hear unproven claims.

Tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter remain protected by federal laws passed in the 1990s that say they are not publishers like newspapers so they are not responsible for defamatory posts on their sites.

Weekly newspapers such as ours also allow residents to share their opinions. But we require proof of the letter writer’s identity and will not publish defamatory statements.

Some residents have questioned whether Blank Slate Media is even-handed in publishing letters from readers and public officials.

Several residents said Blank Slate Media favored Tom Suozzi in his recent race against Nassau County Legislator Mazi Pilip for the 3rd Congressional District by the number of letters we published in our award-winning opinion pages favoring Suozzi.

But as we told our critics, we published all the letters we got from residents favoring both Suozzi and Pilip – as is our policy. The reason for the imbalance was that many more letter-writers supported Suozzi.

As if to prove our point, Democratic North Hempstead Town Councilmember Mariann  Dalimonte sent us a letter this week criticizing how Republican Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena is running the town and DeSena responded with her own letter. Both are appearing in our current opinion section.

And one of our reporters is covering the charges and responses in a story that appears this week.

The state Legislature has introduced two bills recognizing the vital role local newspapers play in the communities they serve and the threat they face.

The first is the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, a bipartisan bill that would provide tax credits to local news outlets to employ reporters and editors.

News organizations would receive a 50% tax credit against each newsroom employee’s salary, up to $200,000 per outlet.

This benefit would be limited to print and online newspapers and broadcasters with 100 employees or less that cover local community news ensuring that truly local news outlets -and not large media companies – will receive this assistance.

This would allow newspapers to employ more reporters and editors. This would mean better coverage of local government, schools, business districts and people making a difference to our communities.

The tax credit is capped at $20 million statewide and  would be awarded to qualifying outlets on a first-come, first-served basis until the money is spent.

The legislation cleared an important hurdle last week with its inclusion in the state Senate’s proposed 2025 budget resolution.

But it needs Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Assembly to agree to fund the bill in this year’s budget.

We urge our readers to join the Empire State Local News Coalition in calling for final passage.

A second bill introduced in the state Legislature would mandate New York State agencies to spend at least 50% of their annual print and digital advertising in local community and ethnic media outlets.

This would be an enormous financial boost to papers like the Scarsdale Inquirer and, yes, Blank Slate Media’s six publications, allowing them to stay profitable and hire more employees including reporters and editors here in New York – rather than sending the money to Silicon Valley

The mandate would also have the benefit of spending New York State taxpayer money wisely on a cost-effective way to get information from state agencies to residents.

Support for the spend-local mandate is less time-sensitive than the tax credits because it does not require additional spending – just direction on where the money is spent.

But both bills are urgently needed by local newspapers like ours – as well as residents who want to stay informed about the community they live in.

Your help is essential for that to happen. Let your state representatives know that you want them to support both pieces of legislation.