At the Eagle, we believe an investment in local journalism is an investment in the community. It’s with that belief that, last week, the Butler Eagle launched its new Community Impact Fund.

This Thursday, Nov. 19, we’ll recognize and celebrate the fund with a 12-hour long livestreamed event, where our journalists, alongside community members, will look back on how our presence made a difference in recent years.

The Butler Eagle works hard to provide consistent community-minded journalism, access to civic information, investigative journalism and media literacy education.

But the truth is that producing that type of journalism has become costly to newsrooms that are struggling to find a sustainable future.

A report released last month from the Medill Local News Initiative found 170 newspapers, the equivalent of more than three per week, have closed or merged over the past year. Many of those were the last source of original news in their communities.

A study by the Columbia Journalism Review looked at two counties, one with a recent newspaper closure, and found an increase in government borrowing costs in the one without a newspaper, but not the other.

We don’t want that to happen here — a place that many staff members, myself included, call home.

Tracy Leturgey, interim managing editor of the Butler Eagle

Matthew Brown

We know you don’t always get your news from the Butler Eagle, but I’d ask you to consider where the information you encounter on social media or even area television stations originates. You could trace it back here quite frequently, whether we’re mentioned or not.

Just one recent example comes from a scarcely attended county planning commission meeting, where a Butler Eagle reporter learned about a potential data center proposed for Forward Township.

This news didn't just appear on your Facebook page out of the blue. It began circulating social media after the Butler Eagle’s team published a story.

It happened because the Butler Eagle either staffs a reporter at every one of those meetings or reviews what happened.

We aim to be at many government meetings, even when they appear quiet. We aim to review the agendas and meeting minutes when we can't be there.

We also wade through thousands of criminal complaints systematically, aggregate information from dozens of websites and community calendars, and file many record requests to compel elected leaders to share documents they don't readily hand out.

We ask tough questions and seek answers when they aren't easy to find.

We hope you’ll join us in this movement to keep to our community informed.

Consider checking out the Community Impact Fund at impact.butlereagle.com.