I still can’t believe we own a newspaper. It feels silly to type that sentence.

We’re almost seven years into being the caretakers of this community institution, publishing for 148 years.

And yet, it still seems like an incredibly grown-up, entirely too adult thing that we do every week, putting out the next, fresh edition, which we call “the weekly miracle.”

When Mike and I left our newsroom jobs at the biggest paper on the Western Slope and barely scraped enough money together to purchase the Plaindealer and find a place to live, we made the biggest gamble of our lives.

We made a pretty big bet that this community would support the continued existence of the Plaindealer, and the hard-hitting accountability reporting we wanted to bring here. Our mantra has always been: Even small places deserve quality local news.

We know this place is special and we think you deserve it. And we’ve seen what happens in other places that have lost their local newspapers, which is happening more often these days.

We’ve tried our best to keep the community informed and connected, and to bring you stories you couldn’t get anywhere else.

There are hundreds of other small, independently owned local newspapers across the country like ours, serving their communities.

We’re bringing a film about one of them to the Sherbino Theater on Friday night, and I hope you will join us to watch the documentary and talk about local news. The film, “For the Record,” is a masterful account of a small-town newspaper in Canadian, Texas, and we have a lot in common with the publisher at the center of the film.

I think you will relate to the connection between the newspaper and the community in the film, just as we have that connection here. The film also does an excellent job of showing you what it’s like behind the scenes at a local newspaper. There are some unique challenges to providing local information in a small community, which we can talk about more if you decide to come.

I look forward to being inspired (again) by the film and sharing that inspiration with you, dear readers.

We screened this film back in June in Ouray at the Wright Opera House, and the audience loved it so much that we knew we needed to bring it to Ridgway, too. Many thanks to the Sherbino for allowing us to offer the film in Ridgway’s living room.

The doors open at 5:30 p.m., the show starts at 6 p.m. and we will have refreshments, too. We’ll also have a Q&A with veteran journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis. And those of you who haven’t yet met our Report for America journalist, Lia Salvatierra, will have a chance to visit with her.

We look forward to spending time with you.

Erin McIntyre is the co-publisher of the Plaindealer. Email her at erin@ouraynews.com.