Save the PATCH for future generations

Dear neighbors and Friends, As much as I grumbled about the earlier messed up versions of the PATCH after AOl took it over a few months ago, I am now seeing how invaluable it really is to get local news, and beyond on a daily basis. Lately the PATCH has improved but I guess it is till goiing away October 15. This community is so isolated and neglected from coverage by regional TV, radio and other printed  news sources that we will be really more isolated than ever. Can't we do something to keep this kind of internet news source going? Perhaps the Enumclaw Courier Herald can innovate such a "blog" that really really covers as much news and community information as this website does. The Seattle Times community blag is a great example of a blog that connects to other community blogs to spread local news. I Think it is what the people want and need: to know the full range of what is happening in this vibrant community. The Enumclaw Courier  Herald does not have the staff to cover all the news, or the size of paper to fit it in, or the corporate philosophy to support it. It is not the local staff at the local paper at fault. That huge corporation Sound Publishing, buying up most local papers in the Pacific Norhwest, could hire staff to create a PATCH-type service, but will they? (They are not buying local papers because they are not profitable). The truth is the readership on the PATCH is really far less than the paper, and the advertising not as lucrative as a newspaper. The major chain stores, the newspapers' primary source of advertising revenue, can't print circulars on the internet. People need a grocery store or car lot ad in their hands. Legal ads are also lucrative but they must, by law, be posted in a hard copy newspaper. Yet, local coverage is not as broad or as free (especially non-profit press releases about their events) as the old days we remember since printing papers becomes more costly. It is just the way it is now. And the sad thing is the youth are not reading papers or websites like these as much as Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites. The youth today rely on word of mouth advertising via smart phones. That's where they get their news.  Involvement in community and civic life seems to be lost to this generation, except for a minority who have been taught to engage. Our schools do a great job involving kids in civic life to the extent possible for teachers in hectic classrooms, but that's only a part of a child' life. Their interests are elsewhere. Its a bigger world for them and they are flooded with resources we elders never had, yet the PATCH and sites like this have an impact on so many people (maybe about 10 percent of our population?) and through this device we are better connected to one another, to hopes and dreams for a better community, a shared vision of who we are and closer ties to one another. We need to be informed. That's my opinion. What's yours?