One of the most important factors in maintaining newspaper notice is the strength of the relationships between local publishers and their representatives in the state legislature. The relationships don’t need to be particularly close. They don’t even need to be politically harmonious as long as there is a baseline of trust. Public officials who can put a face to their local paper are much more likely to consider its policy concerns.

As older newspaper publishers sell their papers or retire and those who remain are left with less time and more responsibility, relationships between state and local officials and the representatives of their local papers have grown more tenuous. This trend has made it much more difficult for press associations to protect newspaper notice and promote transparency in state legislatures.

The toxic nature of our politics and the demonization of “the media” have played a role in this trend but they’re not insurmountable. The best, most experienced publishers continue to maintain fruitful relationships with elected officials even in the reddest, most anti-media regions of each state. All that is required is a willingness to reach out to officials and to spend a little time meeting with them so they can learn about your business and hear your concerns and challenges. Every publisher or publisher-equivalent staff member should consider it a crucial function of their job.

It’s helpful to begin building the relationship with your representatives before you need anything from them. Before the bad piece of legislation has been introduced. So now is as good a time as any to invite the officials who represent your community to visit your paper or join you for a coffee or meal. Your business may depend on it.