Last week I listened to a great podcast called “Starving the Watchdog.” It was by Shankar Vedantam, who reveals unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and directs our relationships.

In this podcast, Vedantam looked into the effect of declining newspaper circulations and their direct effect on the communities they serve.

He stated that there are lots of options in today’s world for newspaper readers who want to pay less or nothing for their news. From free blogs to social media sites and TV news, who needs a newspaper?

Millions of Americans across our nation have decided that they do not need a newspaper anymore.

Why subscribe if there’s no time to read, you feel the paper is biased or you want to save money. Those are all rational thoughts. Or are they?

Think about this: if I decide not to buy a watch, I save money. However, if I decide not to pay for a police department, I might save money initially, but end up paying more in the long run.

Citizens, unfortunately, view the newspaper as a consumer product — which it is not. It’s been found to be more like a police or fire department. No, we are not first responders. But we are on the front lines of daily news and act as a watchdog for our communities.

So who bears the cost if communities don’t have police departments, fire departments or newspapers? What happens when newspapers are not around to dig into local corruption and malfeasance? What are the consequences to taxpayers?

Since the early 2000s, newspaper have seen much change; there is now doubt.

As is the same for most businesses, when the surroundings change, the business must adapt to stay in business. Some businesses thrive, while others struggle. And yes, this is how capitalism works.

But Vedantam suggests newspapers don’t fit a normal business model as newspapers have a very different type of effect on the communities they serve.

Finance professors Paul Gow, Dermit Murphey and Chan Li studied the effect of newspapers that have closed down and their negative effect on those communities.

The team had a hunch that by looking at the financial side of a community after losing its newspaper it would show a negative effect on municipal finance.

So why is this a big deal?

Vedantam shares that just like when you borrow money from a bank to purchase a home, local city governments borrow money to build police stations, senior centers and bridges. Taxpayers such as you pay off those city loans over time, the same as homeowners pay off their mortgage.

Murphy found there was a direct relationship between the cost of those loans to city government and the decline in newspapers. Research found that government borrowing costs increased in communities that had lost their newspapers over the years. Meaning, the closing of a local newspaper was followed by an increase in loan costs, ultimately increasing tax rates for citizens.

Murphy concluded that this increase in loan costs was a direct effect of not having the “Watchdog” around to hold public officials and major corporations accountable.

He also states that the reason bank rates increase is due to banks realizing that loans to local governments are now a little more risky. Why? Because they know that some government officials will be a little less honest and a little less careful.

Vedantam compares losing a community newspaper to getting rid of police officers that patrol neighborhoods. It just shouldn’t be allowed.

This information should be important to all citizens of all communities. Decisions of today may have repercussions tomorrow.

I believe it’s important to understand what a local newspaper is really about. And Shankar Vedantam hit the nail on the head with this podcast.

We understand that readers become frustrated with content, change and, occasionally, misspelled words. We also understand that readers may not always agree with a heavy-handed approach to opinions and editorials that focus on important topics across our community. Yes, we do understand. But it remains our job to keep the communities we serve informed with local news that affects them.

Luckily for Port Arthur and Mid-County, The Port Arthur News remains financially sound and is doing well, unlike some of our media friends across the nation that have had to close their doors over the years.

And it is unfortunate how the closing of those doors negatively affected the citizens and taxpayers of those communities as mentioned above.

Empower Yourself. Get involved. Stay informed.

You can listen to more podcasts by Shankar Vedantam on ITunes podcasts “Hidden Brain.”

Rich Macke is publisher of The Port Arthur News.