Don Your Way column: Why Doncaster's local journalists are key workers during lockdown

Casually responding to a post I’d made about journalists being classed as key workers by the Government, I was told that I had an ‘inflated view’ of my ‘own worth’ before the commenter added: “Maybe you'd like us to come out in the street and clap you too?”

Despite my protestations that local news is vitally important in times of national crisis and emergency, his response came: “Local news in a national crisis is precisely not important. Not important enough to make its purveyors keyworkers, not in my view.” He then proceeded to state that he never reads local news.

Now, I’m certainly not suggesting anyone stands on their doosteps appauding local newspaper journalists. We’d never even consider comparing ourselves to the NHS heroes putting their lives on the frontline each day. We can’t come anywhere near to their heroics.

But what we can do is tell you about them. The kind-hearted people doing their bit to help others in Doncaster.

The unsung heroes that are never going to get the coverage on the BBC or Sky or other national news outlets.

We're here to keep you updated with the coronavirus stories that matter to you in Doncaster that won’t be reported elsewhere.

Sorting out the misinformation on Facebook, debunking all the nonsense about 5G (which we get a surprisingly frightening amount of) or simply telling you the opening times of the town’s supermarkets.

The businesses that are doing their bit with deliveries, the people going out and about to raise a smile, the kids sticking pictures of rainbows in their windows.

We didn’t ask to be called key workers and knowing many of my colleagues as I do, they’d be embarrassed to be classified as such, barely feeling worthy to mentioned alongside nurses and doctors in keeping the nation running.

But at the same time, we know we’ve got an important job to do in bringing you the news that you deserve in these troubling and unprecedented times and that’s what we’ll continue to do.