Plenty of you listen to our critics, who constantly accuse us (in the most negative of terms) of negativity, or to industry pundits, who compare us to dinosaurs waiting for meteors.

This weekend’s headlines don’t help. Two of the state’s best news organizations appear to be lumbering into extinction — the Lawrence Journal-World snatched up by an out-of-state chain and the Hutchinson News and Salina Journal essentially going on the auction block.

Are we as fragile as our out-of-county-owned competitor, who recently cut back distribution, apparently to refocus on its now-more-cherished target markets of Newton and Wichita?

Nationwide, community weeklies like ours aren’t having the best of times. But unlike metro dailies, free papers, and Charles Dickens, they aren’t having the worst of times, either. The reason is the good ones have a clear and honest brand for themselves — something the county economic development whatever-it-is might be well advised to focus on before worrying about how to divide or aggregate tax dollars.

Our brand means trying to give you, our No. 1 customer, everything you want and need — happy, sad, and everything inbetween. We want you to be able to do what’s needed for democracy to function: have all the information so you can think before arriving at your own conclusion.

— ERIC MEYER