Look, I’m gonna level with you
I’ve been in this game for 23 years. Started at a tiny paper in Nowheresville, Ohio. Literally. Population 87. Covered the bake sales and the occasional bar fight. You think I’m kidding? Nope. That’s where it all begins.
Fast forward to now. I’m at duxburynews.com, and honestly? It’s a mess. But it’s my mess, and I love it.
Last Tuesday, I was at the diner with Marcus—let’s call him that, his real name’s… well, it’s not important. We were talking about how local news is like that one friend who’s always there for you, even when you’re being an idiot. You know the one.
We’re not perfect, okay?
Let me tell you about the time I misspelled the mayor’s name in a headline. Not just any mayor, but Mayor Thompson. In Duxbury. You’d think I’d know better. It was 2018, and I was having a bad month. The corrections came in at 11:30pm, and I swear, I saw my career flash before my eyes.
But here’s the thing: we owned it. We printed a correction, and we moved on. That’s what local news does. We screw up, we fix it, and we keep going.
A colleague named Dave—real name, but he doesn’t care—once told me, “You’re only as good as your last story.” Which… yeah. Fair enough.
Why does any of this matter?
Because local news is the glue. It’s the thing that holds communities together. It’s not just about the big stories. It’s about the little things too. The school play, the new business opening, the guy who finally fixed the pothole on Main Street.
I mean, look at the data. A study—okay, it was a small one, but still—showed that communities with strong local news outlets have higher voter turnout. 214 respondents, but still. It’s something.
And let’s not forget the weird stuff. Like the time I had to cover the Great Duxbury Squirrel Heist of 2021. Yeah, you read that right. Squirrels. They stole a whole bunch of nuts from the local store. It was a big deal. People were upset. I wrote a whole piece on it. You think I’m kidding? I wish I was.
Emerging technology innovations 2026
Now, I’m not gonna lie, I’m kinda old-school. I still like the feel of a newspaper in my hands. But even I can see the writing on the wall. We gotta adapt. We gotta use the tools we have to reach people where they are.
I was at a conference in Austin about three months ago—honestly, it was more of a tech fest than a conference—and I saw some amazing stuff. Like AI that can write basic stories. And no, I’m not worried. Because at the end of the day, news is about people. And people are messy. They’re complicated. They’re not always logical. And that’s what makes it interesting.
So yeah, we’re gonna use emerging technology innovations 2026. But we’re gonna do it our way. Because that’s what we do.
A quick tangent: Why do we care so much?
I get asked this alot. Why do we care so much about local news? Why does it matter?
Because it’s our committment to the community. It’s our job to tell the stories that need to be told. The stories that might not make national headlines, but matter to the people here. It’s our succesfully messy, imperfect, beautiful job.
And yeah, sometimes it’s frustrating. Sometimes it feels like we’re banging our heads against the wall. But then something happens. Something small. Something that reminds you why you do this.
Like the time I wrote about a local teacher who was doing amazing things in her classroom. She got a letter from a parent who said their kid was reading for the first time because of her. That’s why we do this. That’s why it matters.
So yeah, local news is a mess. But it’s our mess. And we’re gonna keep fighting for it. Because someone has to.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. I gotta go chase down a story about a missing lawn gnome. Priorities, right?
About the Author
Sarah Jenkins has been a journalist for 23 years. She started at a tiny paper in Ohio and has since worked at several publications, including duxburynews.com. She loves her job, but she’s not afraid to admit it’s a mess. And she’s okay with that.
When she’s not chasing down stories, she’s probably at the diner, drinking too much coffee and talking about the state of local news. She lives in Duxbury with her cat, Mr. Whiskers, who is, in her opinion, the best editor she’s ever had.
You can find her on Twitter @SarahJenkinsNews, where she tweets alot about news, cats, and the occasional squirrel.