This is National Newspaper Week.

Well, really, it is a big whoop, since it involves your life story, as we shall see.

This 82nd annual National Newspaper Week — technically Oct. 2-8 — is a recognition of the service of newspapers and their employees throughout the United States and Canada and is sponsored by Newspaper Association Managers.

Ever since Ben Franklin published one of the first newspapers in the U.S., newspapers – whether the print or online version — continue to be just as important to Americans as they were in those early days.

They’re still the most trusted means of conveying accurate, current information. In printed versions, they have a reference value that can extend to decades.

They’re just as important as an exchange for political and social thought. Don’t believe it? – read the opinions, columns, and letters to the editor – or better yet, write one.

On most cases, the local newspaper is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, business in the community it serves.

The Pontotoc Progress rolled its first issue off of the presses February 28, 1929. This newspaper was was established in February 1929 by Grady Cook and Ned Lee. Mr. Cook’s son, Robert P. (Bob) joined him as coeditor of the paper in 1951. Bob became editor…