It came as a surprise to us when a Facebook post read that the Bronx News, established for the past 42 years, would downgrade. Instead, the paper will serve as an advertising vehicle loaded with horoscopes, trivia, random fun facts, comics and virtually no original reporting. For all intents and purposes, the new Bronx News is a trivialized version of its former self.

The publication certainly had an edge, with stories largely focusing on the darker side of the Bronx with a sprinkle of good news thrown in here and there. But say what you will about the newspaper, the important takeaway is it was published, falling into the hands of Bronx readers who may not have known an event such as the newspaper’s downgrade took place.

This should concern you. After all, there is now one less newspaper watching what’s happening in the Bronx, a growing trend that began when unfortunately, the Daily News closed its Bronx bureau a year ago.

Here’s the general lowdown of newspapers: they exist for you. They are here to keep people honest, shedding light on injustices all in the name of improving your quality of life status. It’s a system that works so long as the advertising revenue pours in. For the Bronx, a largely impoverished borough that’s under-reported, lack of news only weakens the populous and does not train them to question the governed. That job, with the high hope of effecting ground-level legislative change, is left to the community boards and the handful of journalists covering this great borough.

Community newspapers certainly inform neighbors on what’s happening in their communities by utilizing a set of newsgathering guidelines that compel us to be even-handed, free of bias and always open to hearing two or three sides to an argument. Whether it’s education, crime, politics or the regular stories of the day, the journalist is consistently keeping your interests in mind without spouting their own personal beliefs. At least that’s how it should be.

More importantly, there is a connection between lack of news and an increased level of malfeasance. The fewer newspapers, the more it can encourage the powerful to make bad decisions and call them right ones.

With the Bronx News no longer delivering its brand across the borough, the silence becomes ever-more present. This development puts the rest of Bronx media under intense pressure to write the first draft of the borough’s history. It’s a piecemeal job, sure, but it certainly gets the job done. The borough can only become stronger if more reporters were hitting the pavement, questioning lawmakers on policy matters and uncovering the ants of malfeasance.

News coverage is flourishing elsewhere in the city, notably Brooklyn and Queens. This is partly due to a number of variables that include demographics, socioeconomics and population. Be that as it may, it’s effectively covered, and rightfully so. But the Bronx, with its many injustices, socioeconomic divide, and quality of life issues, lacks the strength in numbers. Journalists are becoming few and far between in the borough.

With the original Bronx News now etched in the annals of Bronx history, the erosion of news continues. It makes us wonder about a line we heard at a recent journalism conference at the New York Press Association: “A community without a newspaper no longer exists.”