I recently sent a donation to the Sky-Hi News and received a warm thank-you email from Publisher Emma Trainor. It caused me to wonder how many others have donated to the Sky-Hi News.

It is easy to do. Due to hardship among our local businesses, local media outlets are seeing a decline in advertising dollars. If you are like me, you regularly pick up a copy of the newspaper to read with your morning coffee, or you may rely on the Breaking News alerts on the Sky-Hi website or Facebook page.

What is that news worth to you? What is it worth to have coverage of local events, businesses, and public meetings? Recently, the Winter Park Times announced it would be going on a six-month hiatus because it is too costly to print a newspaper. Consider what might happen if our other local media outlets followed that trend.

There are so many good causes in our county, but a free and present press is certainly among them. If you have the funds to subscribe to other kinds of media — subscription streaming television or music services — then please consider also supporting our local media. Having reporters on the ground in our communities is not something we can take for granted.

— Anna Szczepanski, Winter Park