OPINION: DAVE OLIVERIA — DFO: We need The Press

I have competed against the Coeur d’Alene Press since September 1984 when I stepped off a U-Haul truck from the Lewiston Tribune.

In the 1980s and 1990s, I was on The Spokesman-Review side of the “North Idaho Newspaper War.” The competition between the staffs to get the news first was so fierce that the Idaho Statesman published a lengthy report about it. I was one of those interviewed by then Statesman reporter Dan Popkey.

On Sept. 1, 2017, I was the last one to leave the SR’s Coeur d’Alene office. I literally turned the lights off in the office that day. My credentials as a media opponent of The Press are matchless.

Why am I telling you this?

I need the Coeur d’Alene Press more than ever today. I need it to report how the pandemic is affecting my community and to keep me up-to-date on the well-being of my neighbors.

The Press is a community lifeline for communication, local news and accurate information. I will do what I can to promote its well-being at a time when the C-Bug has flattened what’s left of ad revenue throughout the newspaper industry.

You should, too.

Imagine that The Press closed its doors. We’d be without fact-checked vital news regarding the impact of the C-Bug on Kootenai County and North Idaho. We would have to rely on national news and the SR, which I admire dearly but doesn’t have boots on the ground in Kootenai County.

We’d lose the institutional knowledge of longtime columnists Kerri Thoreson, Nils Rosdahl and Sholeh Patrick, not to mention longtime editor, Mike Patrick.

Without The Press, we wouldn’t know the following news Wednesday: Bonner General Hospital has admitted the first COVID-19 victim to be hospitalized in North Idaho. Washington residents are flooding North Idaho parks because their governor has restricted outdoor activities. The huge die that floated onto the Coeur d’Alene shore during the spring 2017 flood has become part of the city’s public art collection with a permanent home at Independence Point.

The story about “Dicey,” the name for the large die, wasn’t vital to my well-being. But I smiled when I read it. We need smiles these days. I appreciate that The Press reported on it.

Without The Press, we wouldn’t have local obituaries. Or the local opinion and local letters to the editor, or the local weather analysis by Cliff Harris and Randy Mann. And on and on.

It has always been fashionable to belittle the local newspaper. To quit subscribing when the prices go up to cover increased costs in newsprint or advertising loss. Or to form a bias against your local paper because you don’t like the way the national media report.

I chuckle when I read a letter to the editor describing The Press as too liberal. Or too conservative. It is neither. I marvel that The Press has done a good job navigating a right-center course when the politics in North Idaho have gotten extreme.

Here’s the bottom line. We’re in a world of hurt if The Press lays off staff. Or operates at minimum capacity. Or, heaven forbid, shuts its doors. Without The Press, we’d rely on Facebook, Twitter and other gossip forums to provide a semblance of community news. We’d be at the mercy of rumor mongers, public relations outfits and political hacks.

I don’t know what you can do to help The Press. If nothing else, you should subscribe to keep the circulation numbers up as the paper struggles to regain advertising lost to the pandemic. And you should view this forum provided by Duane Hagadone and capably managed by Mike Patrick as a local treasure — and an essential part of our community.

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Dave Oliveria is a Coeur d’Alene resident.