This week is National Newspaper Week and we are in a celebratory mood.

Why are we so happy, you may ask? Because we are honored to be located in what we believe is the best parish in the state, best county in the nation and allowed to serve the very finest people this world has to offer.

National Newspaper Week was established in 1940 and has been recognized each year since, making this year the 83rd year of recognition. It’s a way to acknowledge the tremendously valuable asset newspapers are to all communities, large and small.

This year also marks 55 years that the Franklin family has continuously owned and operated The Jena Times Olla-Tullos-Urania Signal. Of course, 54 of those years this newspaper was in the hands of the greatest Publisher/Editor to ever exist, my dad, Sammy J. Franklin.

My dad was a true innovator when it came to weekly newspapers. He knew what the paper must do to not just survive, but to become engrained in the community much like a family member and allow it to be highly successful.

It was a relatively simple business plan with just a few basic principles that allowed the paper to grow and reach success.

It started with integrity in news stories. He understood the importance of trust from readers and made sure that whatever he printed there were facts to back up the ink on the page.

This included never exaggerating or embellishing either headlines or stories. Just the facts and that’s it. He understood that the public was depending upon him to simply tell what happened without adding his opinion.

In this day and age when so many are thrilled to add their personal commentary to any and all events, isn’t it nice to just read a story with just the facts that allows you, the reader, to establish your own opinion about something?

That’s the importance of community newspapers. We understand that most people don’t have time to attend town council meetings or other government meetings, so we attend for you and tell you what happened. Our opinion on what elected officials do is not the issue or our job. Our job is to simply be the reader’s eyes and ears and allow them to make their own assessments of the actions taken by officials.

When it comes to covering local events, local people, local meetings, and the such, we make a very consorted effort to stay in the middle of the road and not lean in favor or against one group or the other.

As a small-town newspaper, where we know everyone and everyone knows us, we go to church with those we’re reporting on, have children and grandchildren in the same schools and are neighbors and friends with those we report on, it’s very important that we stay very neutral when covering a story – especially anything controversial.

Years ago, my dad gave me some great wisdom about covering controversial topics at a small-town newspaper. He said to make sure each side was granted equal print and both sides had their point clearly stated in the story.

“The way you can tell if you were unbiased in your article and that you reported it equally is when the paper comes out, if you hear from both sides and both sides think that you reported in their favor – then you know you have written a truly unbiased story,” he said.

That continues to be our goal today.

Another key to his successful newspaper business model was to become involved and cover as much of the parish as possible. This included covering everything from community gatherings, school events, sports and other school activities, church events, and be a source from births and weddings to area deaths.

Still yet, another key was to actively promote the parish, from business and industry to community organizations, and anything else that gives a positive reflection of our parish.

This is one reason why when someone places an advertisement with this newspaper, our graphic artists work tirelessly to provide the very best and highest quality advertisement that we can possibly give.

Over the last six months we have made many changes to this newspaper and there are many reasons those changes were performed. The first and foremost is that in looking at the newspaper landscape from the past 20 years, we realized this industry is in decline. Since 2003, over 2,000 small-town, independent newspapers have closed down leaving a great void in their communities.

We do not want this to happen to The Jena Times so we have taken steps and are continuing to enact changes to keep this paper vibrant for years to come. It’s taken some time as we navigate the social media and online world, but all of the changes are getting us ready to be relevant to every generation out there.

As National Newspaper Week is celebrated, we also celebrate how this newspaper has grown during the past six months. We have seen new subscriptions increased exponentially and newsstand sales going up to the point that we are having to consider printing more copies each week – both of these resulting in readership numbers that are taking off faster than an Elon Musk spaceship.

Our online presence has grown in ways we have never seen. We have had a Facebook account for several years but we’ve never had the interaction we’ve experienced in the past few months. We’re also now on Instagram and X (former Twitter) and we’ll soon be utilizing new features to our updated website.

On a personal note, last week I was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Louisiana Press Association. As I sat at the shareholders meeting last Friday, I thought of the long and dedicated service my dad performed on that same board. What an honor for me to be in that position.

All of this is only possible because of two things: 1. The grace and mercy of Jesus; and 2. You. The reader…each of you are part of the greatest parish in the state and any success this newspaper achieves is only possible because of you.

So, let’s celebrate National Newspaper Week! You deserve it.