A free press is a pillar of democracy, and it relies on all of us to thrive.

Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, is upon us. The next day is Small Business Saturday. Then comes Cyber Monday, followed by the signature day for philanthropy on Giving Tuesday. Don’t be shocked, but I occasionally defend America’s consumerism. And as is hopefully clear to readers of the Weekly, I recommend shopping locally, and donating generously to nonprofits.

Today, however, I also want to ask you to consider using your credit card to buy some press freedom.

Last week the newspaper industry observed what I’m calling Red Alert Wednesday with the release of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism’s annual State of Local News Report. The news is dire: “Newspapers are continuing to vanish at an average rate of more than two a week,” it reads. “Since 2005, the country has lost almost 2,900 newspapers. In addition to losing almost a third of its newspapers, the country has lost almost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists – 43,000 – since 2005.”

By comparison, coal mining is doing better than journalism. According to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the U.S. coal industry has shed 44 percent of its workforce since 2005.

But unlike the reduction in coal miners, the decline of newspapers is a threat to democracy. The free press is historically recognized as a vital antidote to political corruption and authoritarianism. It is the only commercial enterprise specifically enumerated for protection in the Bill of Rights. The forefathers recognized a forceful and independent press is a pillar of the republic. That has not changed.

Penelope Muse Abernathy, the lead author on the Medill study, connects the dots ominously when she writes: “Historically, strong local newspapers have created a sense of community and nurtured grassroots democracies. Through their journalism, newspapers helped set the agenda for debate of important local issues… Reduced staffing means fewer stories. Transparency and accountability suffer. When a regional daily newspaper lays off journalists, investigative pieces that expose corruption and wrongdoing aren’t written.”

In their 2021 book News Holes: The Decline of Local Journalism and Political Engagement, Danny Hayes and Jennifer Lawless, a pair of media academics, use data to show the demise in local news has reduced political engagement during the last two decades in cities and towns across this country.

As Squid reported in the Nov. 16 edition, the Gannett-owned Salinas Californian again has not a single local reporter covering that city of 150,000 residents. And after a four-year run, readers in 2023 said goodbye to the Pacific Grove Press.

We here at the Weekly are holding our own. Part of that success is that we have a deep history and strong connections across the community and we’ve continued to invest in our newsroom.

We have also adopted some of the techniques that the Medill study suggests are key to reversing the decline in local journalism. One is to appeal to our friends and ask them to pony up to help.

John Palfrey is president of the MacArthur Foundation and along with other large donors in the last year, put together a $500 million philanthropic campaign called Press Forward to collaborate with policymakers and publishers to spur a local news resurgence. He argues even more money is needed.

“[Individuals need to] stand up and support their local news providers – whoever that may be in any given area,” Palfrey writes in The Atlantic. “They will need to add it to their list of philanthropic commitments – or at least to their list of subscriptions, alongside Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix.”

The Weekly, in collaboration with the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, launched the Fund for Independent Journalism in Monterey County in 2021. This fund allows donors to make tax-deductible contributions to the future news ecosystem in our community any time, and now via Monterey County Gives!

The Fund is well on its way to the goal of raising $60,000. Please consider this your official invitation to spend the equivalent of an annual Netflix subscription before Dec. 31 to support the free press.

ERIK CUSHMAN is the Weekly’s publisher. Reach him at erik@mcweekly.com