GUEST COLUMNIST

Yes, the news is bad these days.

Gas is at $4 a gallon and the predictions are it will keep rising.

The real estate market is in the tank. Retailing is reeling.

So are car dealers. Investment bankers. Who isn't feeling it?

Are newspapers going the way of the hula hoop?

I don't think so for several reasons.

For starters, I'm still interested in what's happening in my county, my town and my neighborhood.

Without the local newspaper, how am I going to find out if the rumor is true that five homes were burglarized down the block?

Is it true there's a head lice infestation in the local schools? Should I keep my child home? The local newspaper will tell me.

My daughter's getting married. A big day in our lives and a big hit on Dad's pocketbook. But she is so beautiful in her wedding photo. Where else but in the local newspaper can everybody get to see her?

When my Dad died, our family received so many nice notes from his patients and other people we did not even know. They had read about his death in our local newspaper and just wanted us to know what a special person he had been in their lives.

When radio first became popular, a lot of people said, "Well, that will be the end of newspapers."

Then TV came along and a lot more people said, "Well, that will be the end of newspapers."

Then the Internet came along and even more people said, "Well, that will be the end of newspapers."

I'll bet that when the next wave of communications technology comes along, they'll be singing that same song.

Hang onto your newspaper subscription. I don't think the local newspaper is going away any time soon.

(Jerry Bellune is a past president of the S.C. Press Association and nationally known newspaper consultant. He is coowner of the Lexington County Chronicle & The Dispatch News.)