We loved Atención, because we love San Miguel. Our hometown newspaper informed us about the goings on about town. The paper's heart, its calendar section, was called What's Happening, Que Pasa.

Also, for the longest time, the bulk of the articles in the newspaper itself consisted of event announcements. During most of my 12 years here, well over 50% of Atención's copy was comprised of these descriptions of upcoming events.

Of course, those of us who used it knew that Que Pasa was unreliable on several counts. Regularly, that calendar continued to announce events which took place in earlier weeks. Studying it each Friday morning before publishing my calendar Friday at noon, I often asked myself, "Is that event happening again?" Like any regular user, I learned not to immediately trust the event listings in Que Pasa. I flipped through the paper until I saw a corroborating article announcing the event or I called the event producer to confirm it.

Que Pasa was infamous for continuing to list recurring events that had not, in fact, recurred for many months or even years. It was comical, unless, new in town, you didn't know any better. My hopes for more reliability in this regard with Atención's new owner were dashed when, on opening the "new" paper, there were the same outdated events.

Then, bulked up by events actually happening every week, Que Pasa was astoundingly incomplete when it came to listing special, one-time events. Lokkal consistently listed 10-20 events each week that didn't find their way into Que Pasa.

Also, frequently, an event that was described at length in an article announcing the event in the pages of Atención was not listed in Que Pasa's day-by-day, hour-by-hour, tabular format. So, to get a better picture of the goings on about town, you had to flip through the whole of the newspaper.

That wasn't so bad for us readers. We like flipping through newspapers. But imagine the disappointment of the poor (or rich) person or group producing the event, who may have even bought an advertisement publicizing their event. Picture the producer's chagrin when they found that a listing of their event has been left out of Que Pasa. Remember that I studied Atención, and Que Pasa, each week, combing through them both to find events to include Lokkal, when I tell you that such omissions happened all the time, virtually every week.

But as we have to forgive those that we love, our husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, children and parents, we forgave Que Pasa its faults. There was something so reassuring, so pleasant and old-fashioned about flipping through its paper pages.

And, even for a person who was not going to the event, it was interesting to read about the event. It was hometown news. Heck, even the advertisements kept us in touch with local happenings.

All of this changed radically with the onset of the pandemic. People were sheltered in place. There were no events. This was, and still is to some extent, a big problem for a publication whose main purpose is to announce events. Trust me, as publisher of Lokkal, I should know.

Atención's most immediate problem was to find copy, editorial content to fill the gap left by all the event announcements articles that had suddenly disappeared (and by their greatly shrunken Que Pasa calendar). Unfortunately, the replacement articles they found mostly lacked a local flavor.

Yes, there were interviews of local people; interviews which seemed like they were conducted using emailed questionnaires. Yes, there were pieces featuring local businesses; pieces which when read in quick succession, as I sometimes did, revealed themselves to be the same piece with only the names and a few adjectives changed.

But the big problem was that many of the articles were not about San Miguel at all. They were national or international in focus, political screeds, philosophical lectures, New Age or hospital-approved health prescriptions. That's not why we read our hometown paper, not what we loved about Atención.

Lokkal suffered the same diminution of event content. And we had the same response, increasing the number of non-event-related articles we publish each week. But in Lokkal's case these new-found articles all do have a local flavor. At least they are written by a local author who lets you somewhat into their life, revealing some local personality. I tell all my authors, "San Miguel is a small town. Our readers have the expectation of getting to know you. They ask themselves 'Who is this author? Do I know this person, or their face?'"

When events dried up, Atención shifted its weight onto its other foot, its magazine. But its other foot wasn't in San Miguel. When we want national and international news, or philosophy and health advice, there are a lot of other places, a lot of other better places, to get it.

I admire the resolve of Atención's last owner. He invested a lot of time and fortune trying to keep Atención punching above its weight-class. But in the golden light of hindsight, it might have been better to scale back the operation and keep the hometown more in focus.

After half a century, Atención published its last issue the last week of June. But really, the Atención that we knew and loved left the building a long time ago.

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Dr. David presents Lokkal, the social network, the prettiest, most-efficient way to see San Miguel online. Our Wall shows it all. Join and add your point of view.

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