When I started watching Netflix six or seven years ago, I was in college on a very limited income, yet somehow still found the cash to pay $8 a month to watch “Dawson’s Creek” reruns.

Today, Netflix subscriptions range from $10.99 to $12.99 per month, which has not deterred most from subscribing. $13 is nothing for endless entertainment, right?

What if I told you that I could offer you a subscription that gives you daily information about the developments, issues and successes happening in your hometown for less than what I paid for Netflix seven years ago?

A subscription to your daily newspaper is $7.50 per month — and that’s with no discounts.

Let me start by saying that our readership is healthy — 40,000 unique readers per week healthy. Folks continuously prove that they find our content valuable by continuing to visit our website, but more and more, people opt for this free option over paying for their news.

A large portion of these people are the ones who complain about answering a survey question to read their news, or gripe that they have to see an ad first.

You might ask why anyone would opt to pay for news they can get for free on our websites.

It’s a good question.

Many years ago, when the internet inundated our lives as fast as you can flip a light switch, news leaders found a valuable tool for doing what we do best: informing our communities. This is the top priority of journalism companies — reaching as broad an audience as possible with information that is relative, important and necessary to share.

The primary goal of journalism is to serve as the watchdog of a community. We hold leaders accountable for their actions and ensure the public knows these actions are being taken. We share news about developments in business, nonprofits and government. We get the word out about upcoming events and athletic achievements. We keep our communities safe by informing them of crimes committed.

I could go on for days at about the sacrifices journalists make to make sure this information is disseminated to their communities. It never ceases to amaze me the dedication of true journalists, who will do whatever it takes to share the truth and inform a community.

As generous as we are and as determined as we are to inform our readers, it costs money to keep the lights on and pay staff to generate this content.

Don’t be mistaken. This isn’t a subtle way of telling you the industry is dying; at least for the case of local community journalism, it’s not. This is, however, a gentle reminder that if you value local news, your financial support is necessary.

Those who are reading this column online and who do not have subscriptions to the newspaper shouldn’t take this as a public shaming. We appreciate your readership no matter the platform, but encourage you to take advantage of the ability to get the news delivered right to your mailbox five days a week in Niles, Buchanan and Dowagiac, or weekly in Cassopolis in Edwardsburg. You’ll find dynamic layouts worth clipping for the scrapbook, inserts from national advertisers, ads from local businesses and features not found on our website.

I’m so certain that you’ll be pleased with these products that I’m offering 50 percent off subscriptions to any new subscriber who calls our circulation department at (269) 687-7727 and mentions this column before the end of March. This is $3.75 a month for our daily newspapers, or $1.05 a month for our weekly newspapers.

That’s less than one-fourth the price of Netflix — and infinitely more
important.

Ambrosia Neldon is the general manager at Leader Publications. She can be reached by phone at (269) 687-7700 or by email at ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com