Why local community newspapers matter, specifically Los Cerritos Community Newspaper. Just ask iconic journalist Ron Kaye

Journalist Ron Kaye has written a feature on Los Cerritos Community Newspaper for the community editions of the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. July 8. The piece is published in the Times local editions of the Glendale News-Press, and Burbank Leader. Here is the article and link to the publications. If anyone ever doubted the IMPORTANCE Los Cerritos Community Newspaper is playing in OUR society, all you have to do is READ this amazing commentary... By Ron Kaye Great newspaper stories — like the shocking L.A. County tax scandal involving Assessor John Noguez — usually don't come from attending government meetings or going to press conferences. The tip that ignites a reporter's passion almost always comes in a telephone call, as it did last December for Randy Economy, investigative reporter for the Los Cerritos Community Newspaper, a 55,000-circulation weekly with a staff of five, including owner-publisher Brian Hews. What happened over the next eight months shows just how important professional news media still are in the age of the blogosphere — even small community and weekly newspapers — at a time when the total audience for local TV news and large daily newspapers is smaller than what the No. 1 station and dominant paper in a market used to attract. For Economy, 52, who is legally blind, with only partial vision in his left eye, and Hews, whose family owned the Wave newspapers until 1998, it has been the adventure of a lifetime. “The first call we got back in December was from an employee deep inside the assessor's office and he was angry, and very passionate about what was going on inside the office,” Economy recalled last week. “He said, ‘There's this guy who's always in John Noguez's office, and he's going around telling everybody what to do. You got to check this guy out. It's creepy. I called the L.A. Times. I called Channel 2. I'm reaching out to everybody and nobody is taking my calls.” “I'll take your call, I'll listen,” responded Economy, 52, who spent most of his career as a political consultant and government relations aide in the cable TV industry until joining the Los Cerritos staff two years ago. Click here for entire article