Cape Gazette maintains its local focus

Serve your natural market. Words of wisdom often spoken by Publisher Emeritus Dennis Forney that have guided the Cape Gazette since 1993. The natural market of the Cape Gazette – what we call the Cape Region – can be closely identified with the boundaries of the Cape Henlopen School District, an area defined by miles of public coastline, plentiful natural resources and a rapidly growing population. 

Within these boundaries, development is abundant, infrastructure concerns require constant vigilance, and political districts are shifting to meet the changing demographics. The need for local coverage is evident. 

With the interests of national politics reaching a fever pitch over the past several years, it’s easy to become distracted by the noise from above. Conversations on matters decided well beyond the borders of the Cape Region have boiled over into the opinion section of the Cape Gazette in recent years, leading to nothing more than finger-pointing and ad hominem attacks. 

In a day and age when political debates treat facts with indifference, and suspicious sources can often be found for any conclusion one intends to reach, the discourse quickly becomes uncivil. Nothing is accomplished. This doesn’t serve our natural market.

A byproduct of this examination is the realization that it is time to move away from allowing national political debates to play out in the Viewpoints section of this local newspaper. If high-quality journalism and civilized discourse in the pages of the Cape Gazette can make a difference, it will be on a local level. With no lack of topics begging for coverage right here in our communities, space will be prioritized based on local merit.  

The support of Cape Gazette readers and advertisers provides this local newspaper the ability to staff one of most impressive local newsrooms in the nation. In return, the energy and focus of that newsroom should be locked in on the Cape Region, providing the market with the coverage it needs and deserves. 

For the Cape Gazette, serving this market is of the utmost importance.