It’s easy to take pot shots at an organization from the cheap seats. It’s even easier in the digital age, when that cheap seat is at your fingertips with a smartphone or at your house on your laptop.

That sense of being everywhere at once that the online realm gives us has cut down on the amount of real, in-person civic interaction that many communities used to have. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns and social distancing, has made the divide between those who do and those who complain about those who do even wider.

That’s where local media come in. Television stations and larger newspapers do “parachute” stories, dropping in when events rise to the level that catches their attention. In smaller municipalities across the Teche Area, though, the only real way to find out about what is happening — aside from Facebook or Instagram — is to subscribe to the local newspaper.

In St. Martin Parish, there’s the Teche News. In Vermilion, the Abbeville Meridional is filling that niche. St. Mary Parish has The Franklin Banner-Tribune and the Morgan City Daily Review.

And here, in Iberia Parish, there’s The Daily Iberian.

We’re used to the barbs by now. “The Not-So-Daily Iberian.” “The Daily Disappointment.” Or, a common term for many newspapers, “The Daily Fishwrapper.”

But if we don’t cover something, whether it be a football game, a social event or a public meeting, we hear about it. Because no matter what else people may say on any given day, having that presence in the hometown newspaper matters. Especially to the people who live here.

Over the last seven years, on and off, I’ve done a lot of reporting, writing, and researching to make sure that The Daily Iberian was on top of what goes on here. For those who know my cell number (and trust me, there’s a LOT of you!), I have been available at all hours of the day and night, whether on the clock or not, to keep the newspaper and website on top of things.

I think it has worked pretty well. While every news market has seen margins shrink and staffing reduced, The Daily Iberian has still been able to be the primary source for breaking news coming out of our region. Whether it is the latest weirdness in St. Martinville (a cottage industry of its own), the meltdown and rebuilding of the city administration in Jeanerette, or the stabilization of the Iberia Parish Government after the wild ride that was the Romero administration, we’ve been on it.

We’ve also managed to keep up with the cultural changes in the region, covering the festivals, homecomings, and new business ventures that have sprouted as the oil and gas industry has stumbled. As a staff, we have not been perfect. As a reporter and editor, I know I’ve spent many a night kicking myself because I can only get so many things into a story on deadline.

That, for my part at least, is coming to an end. The search is on for the next person to fill my role at The Daily Iberian. I tendered my resignation at the beginning of the month and will be moving on to another position, this time as an investigative reporter at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

The one thing I have learned is that no one is irreplaceable, or indispensable. The next reporter and editor will pick up the beats I’m leaving and, hopefully, will find greater success than I did.

And as a community, the Teche Area is lucky to have a newspaper that is committed to making sure that happens.

Dwayne Fatherree is the former community editor for The Daily Iberian.