Subscribe Sunday is a social media campaign encouraging citizens to subscribe to their local newspaper; let's join it!

By Al Cross

Director and Professor

Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

Today is Black Friday. Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday. Next week come Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday. There's a gap, and you can fill it with Subscribe Sunday on Dec. 1.

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#SubscribeSunday is a social media campaign encouraging citizens to subscribe to their local newspaper or its digital equivalent. The Boston Globe came up with the idea, the New England Newspaper and Press Association is promoting it, and so is The Rural Blog and its publisher, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

Subscriptions are becoming the lifeblood of journalism because so much advertising has moved to the digital space. That phenomenon has finally reached rural newspapers, which have been slow to get into the digital space. But that is where the audience is going, and #SubscribeSunday could be a good way to make citizens think about where they get their information.

I keep saying "citizens" because a target audience for such appeals should be people who have a sense of civic responsibility but don't fully appreciate the role of newspapers in democracy: the chief fact-finders, the independent watchdogs, those who speak truth to power, and help a community have a conversation with itself and set the public agenda.

It's also an opportunity to remind citizens who prefer to get their news from social media that they need to consider the sources of their information. The readership of news stories is driven mainly by social-media referrals, and such readers may not appreciate the difference in those secondary and primary sources.

They need to understand the three major types of information media. News media pay for journalism, which practices a discipline of verification; we determine facts and tell you how we know them. Social media have no discipline and no verification, and are mainly about opinion, not fact. Strategic media (advertising, public relations and marketing) use the other types and sometimes masquerade as news media when they try to sell you something: a good, a service, an idea, a cause, a politician, etc.

If citizens understand these basics, they should be more likely to subscribe to their local newspaper or its digital equivalent. One pitch of #SubscribeSunday is this: "As you plan your purchases for the big holiday shopping weekend, please consider investing in a strong democracy. Support independent local journalism and subscribe to your local news organization or give a subscription as a gift. Share your purchase on social media using hashtag #SubscribeSunday."

For more information on Subscribe Sunday contact Janelle.Nanos@globe.com or Heather.Ciras@globe.com.