A last request to honor a community journalist: subscribe!

Kurt Gaston

After Kansas journalist Kurt Gaston passed away Aug. 2, his family made a touching request: "In lieu of flowers, please consider purchasing a subscription to a daily or weekly newspaper," said the obituary.

Gaston, 61, was a long-time news editor who learned the business at his father's newspaper, then called The Ellsworth Reporter. He was the managing editor at the Jefferson Gazette in northern Ohio and the Baytown Sun in East Texas, as well as a host of Kansas papers: The Sterling Bulletin, The Southwest Daily Times, The Osawatomie Graphic, and The Norton Telegram.

We can think of no better tribute to a fellow journalist than to
help his life's work keep going. It's especially needed now, at a time when news outlets are getting less money from advertising and need to get more from their audiences. As the bumper sticker from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog, says: