Our Community. Our Stories. Our Newspaper.

Every week, we use these pages to tell the stories of our community. We celebrate accomplishments. We recognize our students and athletes. We tell you what’s happening in our schools, local government, businesses, and organizations. We share the good news, and sometimes we have the responsibility of sharing the difficult news.
During National Newspaper Week, we thought perhaps it was time to share a little bit of our own story, too. For many many years, the Merrill Foto News has been part of this community. And while the way people receive information has changed tremendously during those years — and continues to change every day — we believe the role a local newspaper plays is every bit as important today as it has ever been. Maybe even more so.
We live in a time when anyone can publish almost anything instantly. Information can spread to hundreds or thousands of people before anyone stops to ask whether it’s accurate, where it came from, or whether the person sharing it is willing to stand behind it. That makes trust incredibly important — and increasingly rare.
Trust isn’t something we get simply because we’re a newspaper. It’s something we have had to earn and continue earning every week. Our reputation matters to us. A reputation takes years to build, and ours has been built one issue at a time. People know who’s behind what we publish. We’re not an anonymous account — we live and work here, and we stand behind what we put on these pages.
We work hard to be a source of factual, fair, and unbiased local information and a trusted partner to the community we serve. We aren’t here to serve just one person, one organization, one viewpoint, or one part of our community more than another. We’re here for our entire community — which is made up of all kinds of people, with different backgrounds, beliefs, opinions, and experiences.

Part of the role of a local newspaper is accountability. We attend the local meetings, we ask the questions, report decisions, and create a record of what’s happening here at home. We celebrate the people doing wonderful things here, but we also report the facts when the news isn’t something to celebrate. We give space and attention to local issues, organizations, accomplishments, and people that might otherwise go unnoticed. Those things matter.
So does simply keeping people connected. Each week, more than 14,000 copies of the Merrill Foto News are delivered directly to our homes. You don’t need to follow the right social media page. You don’t need an algorithm to decide what you should see. You don’t need to be technologically savvy or even have social media. You don’t even have to know what you’re looking for before you find it. The Merrill Foto News simply arrives every Thursday without fail, like a trusted old friend.
Maybe you read every story. Perhaps you’re reading the obituaries for people you have known or wondering where the garage sales are going to be. Maybe you check the sports pages, look for someone you know, see what local businesses are up to, or find something happening this weekend. Maybe you only spend a few minutes with us that week. But in those moments, thousands of people throughout our area are sharing something in common — holding the same newspaper and seeing their community reflected in its pages. There is something pretty special about that.
A local newspaper doesn’t just report on a community. It preserves it. Years from now, the stories, photos, accomplishments, obituaries, meetings, and everyday happenings in these pages will still be here — a record of what was happening in our little part of the world at this moment in time. Not every story we tell is going to make headlines anywhere else. That’s part of why telling them here matters. These are our stories. They are the people, places, events, and moments that make this area home.
And behind those pages is a small group of people who care very deeply about what we do. Around here, we sometimes call ourselves the “Dream Team.” We’re a small but mighty crew, and between us, we have dedicated a huge portion of our lives to this newspaper and this community. And we’re not just working here — we live here, too. You are our neighbors, our businesses, our schools, our organizations, our families, and our friends.
That makes the responsibility personal to us all. We care about getting it right. We care about being fair. And every week, when another issue goes out the door, there’s a great deal of pride behind it — and sometimes a little relief. Then we do it all over again, trying to make each issue even better than the one before. Always striving to provide you with more local coverage and hometown pride.
For all these years, the Merrill Foto News has documented pieces of our area’s history one week at a time. We feel a tremendous responsibility in carrying that forward, but even more than that, we consider it an honor.
During National Newspaper Week, we simply want to say that we’re proud to be your hometown newspaper, we’re grateful for the trust this community continues to place in us, and we’re honored to continue doing our part to keep our community informed, connected, and engaged.
Because this isn’t just the community we cover.
It’s our home, too.