It’s the end of one year, and the beginning of another, and we are feeling contemplative.

In yesterday’s edition of The Express, we ran a story on B3 about how, as newspapers fade, people who used them for things other than reading are being forced to adapt (here’s a link, if that sounds like something you’d like to read: tinyurl.com/5569kjwz).

At the end of the story, Sarah Wasserman — an assistant dean at Dartmouth — is quoted as saying, “These things will always continue to exist in certain spheres and certain pockets and certain class niches,” she says. “But I do think they’re fading.”

We are proud to represent to one of those pockets, and, God willing, we hope to continue to do so for a good long time.

We love being able to provide the citizens of the region with local news that they cannot get anywhere else, be it coverage of local events or features about notable people, beats like councils, township boards and the school districts, or even soft news like wishing people a happy birthday or anniversary in Around the Town.

This local news is surrounded by news wire, supplied to us from the Associated Press or reprinted from independent outlets like Spotlight PA or Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

Every now and then one of those pieces attracts some special attention, which is awesome to see because it shows that the piece resonated with our readers.

Don’t get us wrong: we value and prioritize our local content far above wire. But, at the same time, we do view our wire to be an important part of the cohesive whole that is an edition of The Express.

Stories on “the back pages,” as we call them internally, are often chosen specifically with a local connection in mind. Sometimes that’s because we think the story is showcasing something neat that could inspire our readers to do something similar locally. Other times, it’s because the story is about a topic that we know a section of our readers enjoy — history and the environment, as examples. Still other times, of course, it’s because a story is just darn interesting, and we want to share it in the hopes that some of our readers agree.

An example of this just happened on our Facebook page the other day, which we want to highlight.

We only share a portion of our content on Facebook — usually stories that we think are either the most important local coverage, or are likely to drive engagement, conversation and interest. One such story was an Associated Press piece out of Louisiana about the struggles of a 13-year-old female student dealing with the fallout of a male student making nude images of her and circulating them on social media — and the ensuing fallout for the students, community and school district.

A chilling comment was included in the story:

“Most schools are ‘just kind of burying their heads in the sand, hoping that this isn’t happening,’ said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and professor of criminology at Florida Atlantic University.

Lafourche Parish School District was just starting to develop policies on artificial intelligence. The school-level AI guidance mainly addressed academics, according to documents provided through a records request. The district also hadn’t updated its training on cyberbullying to reflect the threat of AI-generated, sexually explicit images. The curriculum its schools used was from 2018.”

This story caused a little bit of a stir, with several people criticizing it as a not-local piece.

But here’s the thing: as commenter Felicia Fine noted, “This exact same situation could easily happen anywhere in today’s day and age, unfortunately — including LH.”

We hope and pray that it never does. But, as AI proliferation continues, we feel it is important for the parents and grandparents among our readership to be aware that this is an evolving danger in our society.

A news story may happen somewhere else. But assuming that it can’t also happen here, or have effects here, is foolish.

We believe that a good newspaper is founded on the importance of encountering multiple perspectives — not just what you agree with.

Ultimately, newspapers have historically represented a sizable portion of the continuing education that adult Americans were exposed to, which is a responsibility that we take very seriously.

Many of our readers doubtlessly don’t read every story — especially online, where the click-based system allows you to opt-in to what you want to read in a far more basic way than having a story in front of you allows.

But if you take the time to engage, you’ll probably find something of value that speaks to, if not you, then to someone in our coverage area.

Despite the “fading,” as yesterday’s AP story calls it, we do still have a lot of readers, and we try our best to make sure that there is something for everyone. We are a small team these days, as you can tell from any of our staff photos. But we care deeply and fiercely about our readers — whether consistent or periodic.

Of course, while we are thrilled and honored that we get to survive in an era where so many of our compatriots perish, we are always looking for new ways to thrive instead of merely survive.

We are actively reinventing and reimagining some of our staples — as one example, changing our annual Buck Fever hunting tab into a trophy showcase for people to show off their successes, which has been received amazingly well.

If you have any ideas for us of sections or content you would like to see in 2026, please don’t hestitate to reach out and let us know! The Express is in many ways a reflection of our readers.

As we look ahead to 2026, we are excited to bring you another year of fact-focused local coverage, as well as resonant wire selected to inform, educate, entertain and intrigue.

Our staff are honored for our work to be included in your daily routine, and, knock on wood, we plan to keep doing just that.

Have a safe, and very happy, New Year. We will see you in 2026!