The Journal and Courier dropped its Opinions section on Easter Sunday, and the loss is hard to bear — even for people who disagree with the moderate Republican slant of the editorial board.  Dave Sattler’s comics are missed, and the J and C did not even publish his farewell cartoon.

As a highly literate community of 170,000 people, it is astounding that we only have one daily newspaper year-round and two during the school year with the Exponent.  It’s not quite as astounding as metro Indianapolis’ million-plus making do with the Indianapolis Star as its sole general-readership daily, but it is still not a good showing.  (Indy does have NUVO, an entertainment weekly, and the Indianapolis Recorded, an African-American weekly.)

\The number is more astonishing when surrounding counties, where the J and C is sold, are taken into consideration. Frankfort, whose county boasts 32,776 people has the Frankfort Times, which is part of a small chain based in Marion, Indiana.  Montgomery County, population 38,146, has two:  the Crawfordsville Journal-Review and the Montgomery County Paper.  All are reasonably competent papers.

The J and C is partially sustained by subscribers in the surrounding counties, but as it continues to shed columnists and coverage, readers outside Tippecanoe County will have little reason to pick up a J and C other than to look at mug shots or read Dave Bangert’s column.

The loss of the Opinion section is even more painful in these polarized times.  Social media is all too happy to provide news calibrated precisely to each user’s politics.  Social norms in this part of Indiana militate against talk of politics across party lines.  The Opinions page was a place where competently-written letters and articles across the local political spectrum could be found and there was no avoiding opinions that the reader did not like.

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