Newspaper credibility - Who do you trust?

The grapevine tells me there are some who are under the impression that the only way to get coverage of a story or event is to purchase advertising in either The Clifton Record or Meridian Tribune. I’m not quite sure where this is coming from, but I wanted to clarify some things. In my tenure as a publisher at multiple newspapers across the country, I have never subscribed to the theory of “buy…