Among everything else collapsing in our society, this pandemic could be the death knell for newspapers. Publishers are worried. Ads have disappeared, page numbers have shrunk – except for a so far stubbornly resistant Weekly News – and some have eliminated issues. The Cascadia Weekly is for now a bi-weekly.

Subscriptions and retail sales are 16 percent of the Weekly News annual revenues. Paper sales just about cover the single cost of printing the paper annually.

What does this mean? Newspaper subscribers get an incredible deal. The business model is, pay a token amount to get 52 issues delivered to your home. The publisher then goes to businesses and institutions to get them to purchase ads promoting what they do on the promise that the readers will respond by supporting those businesses and institutions.

Whether it is a restaurant, a car dealer, the library or the community band, the model is that advertisers get told that their buying ads delivers their messages to a readership that will benefit them.

So advertisers pay a lot, subscribers pay hardly anything and the newspaper as a business hustles and sells its community’s readership, who only ante in a dollar a week to be “sold” to advertisers.

Of course there is something wrong with that picture.

It doesn’t sound the least but democratic. Readers believe they are doing a good thing by paying a dollar a week to be able to read and learn and reflect about and be entertained by the news of their community.

Readers are the reason for newspapers.

Their paying attention, discussing, criticizing and participating – showing up – is critical to the health of the community, whether it has to do with a school bond, the town budget, a band concert or a championship basketball team.

But their paying a dollar a week for much of the source that keeps them informed about the community is a pittance of the cost of bringing them that information. That cost – actually the payment structure – is the weak link in the informed citizen model. Citizens, are you surprised that you are not pulling your weight in this part of the democracy equation?

How to fix this? You love your newspaper at a dollar a week, $52 a year, no, actually $45 for subscribers, another deal and discount.

If the newspaper had no ads it would be at least six times more expensive. If instead of one-dollar for eight pages, it was a dollar a page – eight dollar an issue, would you gladly subscribe, as so many gladly subscribe today?

A few diehard democrats will go for that, but must folks will not.

Alternatives that work? A couple or more dailies are structured as nonprofits. Why is a foundation needed to be the sugar daddy and philanthropist? That’s shirking responsibility.

The federal government could fund the newspaper. The local community could tax themselves, the newspaper as needed as a fire department or library. That might spark a healthy debate about the emphasis and focus of the news and probably the editorial viewpoint.

Citizens could jointly share ownership, the newspaper as a co-op.

From the first, before I bought the paper or moved to La Conner, I thought my legacy might be creating a cooperative ownership structure for the new owners, the next generation taking over.

Now I am wondering what your, the paper’s readership, legacy will be.

Benjamin Franklin did reply “a republic, if you can keep it” to the lady’s question, “Dr. Franklin, what will it be? A monarchy or a republic?”

Readers, what will you do to guarantee a newspaper in your community, in your mailbox every Wednesday?

Will your town have a newspaper only if you can keep it? What will you do to guarantee it?

Now, the health of the Weekly News remains strong. I expect the paper will weather this crisis. I intend it to publish well into the future and maintain La Conner’s legacy of the town in Washington with the longest continuous publication of a weekly newspaper.

These are ruminations that it makes sense to share, in this time of change and old normals collapsing.