Some information is too important to withhold

Storms soaking saturated ground. Football flying into fall. Elections engaging civic discourse.

These are all storylines Sumter and South Carolina are bound to experience annually or every few years, to varying degrees of intensity and excitement. In the first couple weeks of August, Sumter County and its surrounding areas heeded headlines about all three in the span of a single week.

No one wants inclement weather to threaten or damage their city, their neighborhood, their family, but the journalists at The Sumter Item know to put their best effort into covering a storm so readers have the best and most up-to-date information in order to make decisions to protect their family, pets and property.

Not everyone wants to engage in elections, but the journalists at The Sumter Item know it's their duty to present accurate, fair information about candidates so readers have the best sense of who is on their ballot in order to make decisions to support their family, friends and neighbors.

OK, maybe a lot of people get excited about fall football season, especially at the local high school level. So do the journalists at The Sumter Item, and they work long weekend hours to bring readers comprehensive coverage of their favorite teams so they can support their friends, children and hometown pride.

The week before this edition of The Item Impact published, coverage of all three of these topics was available for the public to read and watch without a newspaper subscription, similar to this paper you have in your hands or are reading digitally. Inclement weather coverage will always be free because knowledge of it keeps people safe. Election coverage will always be free because knowledge of it keeps grassroots democracy alive. Recent Media Day coverage was free on Facebook Live thanks to our small business event sponsors.

We rely on advertisers and subscribers to continue our mission. But we think some information is so important that everyone, regardless of their ability or propensity to subscribe, deserves to be in the know.