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Why Independent Matters (6/00)
Vital public discourse starts small. That’s why independent periodicals with modest circulations — exemplified by the members of the Independent Press Association (IPA) – matter just as profoundly today as they did a century ago. The practice of democracy, everywhere in the world, depends on media outlets like these.
Despite the proliferation of all-news cable channels, talk radio and the now ubiquitous internet, print persists as the medium where we begin to describe and name public problems, where we undertake the first discussion of issues that shape the daily lives of ordinary people.